The Sacramento Kings proved they were playing to win with back-to-back victories over the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers.
They did it again Saturday, going on the road to upset the Los Angeles Clippers despite having only nine players in uniform.
DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points and Russell Westbrook recorded another triple-double to lead the injury depleted Kings to a 118-19 victory before a crowd of 17,420 at Intuit Dome in Inglewood.
Precious Achiuwa had 25 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots for the Kings (17-51), who have won three of their last four games. Rookie center Maxime Raynaud scored 23 points on 11-of-12 shooting. Westbrook, the NBA’s all-time leader in triple-doubles, posted his fifth of the season and 209th of his career with 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
Kawhi Leonard scored 31 points to lead the Clippers (34-33), who had won four in a row and seven of their last eight. Darius Garland had 25 points and seven assists. Bennedict Mathurin came off the bench to score 24 points.
The Kings shot a sizzling 58.5% from the field while going 12 of 27 (.444) from 3-point range. The Clippers shot 46.4% while going 9 of 27 (.333) from beyond the arc.
The Kings led 33-31 at the end of the first period and carried a 68-54 advantage into the halftime break. They went up by as many as 20 points while holding the Clippers to 34.8% shooting in the third quarter.
The Kings went up 97-78 on a 3-pointer by Daeqwon Plowden early in the fourth quarter. The Clippers then staged a 20-4 run, storming back to cut the deficit to three on a three-point play by Mathurin with 5:24 to go.
The Kings were clinging to a four-point lead with just over three minutes remaining, but 3-pointers by Plowden and Nique Clifford helped Sacramento secure the victory.
The Kings won despite the absences Zach LaVine (finger), Domantas Sabonis (knee), Keegan Murray (ankle), De’Andre Hunter (eye), Malik Monk (ankle), Devin Carter (calf) and Drew Eubanks (thumb).