Portland Outlasts Sacramento 128-120 Despite Sabonis Triple-Double
Domantas Sabonis put up 27 points, 19 rebounds, and 10 assists and it still wasn't enough — Portland walked out of Sacramento with a 128-120 win. The Trail Blazers got contributions up and down the roster to overcome a Kings team that led wire-to-wire through most of the first quarter.
Sacramento controlled the opening frame from the jump. Sabonis set the tone immediately, scoring the game's first two points from the line, and the Kings built leads as large as 12 before Portland started chipping away. Zach LaVine's 26-foot step-back three pushed it to 8-4, and Sabonis kept feeding the offense — assisting on Keegan Murray layups and Darius Acuff Jr. pull-ups to keep the margin comfortable. But Portland refused to fold. Robert Williams III rattled off three dunks in the quarter — including an alley-oop off Deni Avdija and a running dunk off Ja Morant — to keep the Blazers within striking distance. Damian Lillard then hit a 17-foot floater and converted the and-one with 10.7 seconds left, trimming what had been a 9-point deficit to 33-27 at the horn. That sequence looks like the moment Portland decided this game wasn't slipping away.
Acuff Jr. was the most electric player on the floor for Sacramento, finishing with 33 points on a night when the Kings needed every one of them. Avdija countered with 26 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists for Portland, while Lillard and Toumani Camara each added 19. It was Camara who delivered the knockout blow: with Sacramento's home win probability sitting at 19% and the Kings still clinging to life in the fourth quarter, Camara drained a 22-foot three-pointer assisted by Morant at the 3:47 mark of the fourth. The home win probability collapsed from 19% to 8% on that single shot. Game over in everything but the final buzzer.
The story of the night was Portland's collective depth overwhelming Sacramento's star power. Sabonis's triple-double — the kind of line that usually wins games — went to waste because the Blazers had too many contributors to contain. Camara's two steals, Lillard's two steals and a block, Avdija's two-way presence: Portland made Sacramento pay on both ends. Five Kings players were listed as DNP — coach's decision, including John Tonje, Yang Hansen, Leaky Black, Alex Karaban, and Jonathan Mogbo — and whether that roster thinness factored into Sacramento's inability to close is worth watching going forward. For now, Portland takes the 128-120 result and moves on.