SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Center DeMarcus Cousins shook off a recent slump to score 23 points and add 12 rebounds, and forward Rudy Gay also scored 23 as the Sacramento Kings fought off the stubborn Utah Jazz 114-106 on Tuesday at Sleep Train Arena.
Forward Omri Casspi added 19 points, nine rebounds and four assists for Sacramento (8-15), which ended a three-game losing streak. NBA assists leader Rajon Rondo collected 13 more to go with 13 points, and the Kings beat Utah for the first time in exactly a year, ending a three-game slide against that club.
Cousins, who scored just 43 points while shooting just 13-for-53 in Sacramento’s previous three games, made 8 of 14 shots from the field. Gay needed only 13 shots, making 10 of them, to produce his highest-scoring night since a 36-point effort at Milwaukee on Nov. 25.
Guard Alec Burks came off the bench to score 18 points to pace the Jazz (9-10), and Utah’s reserves outscored Sacramento’s 45-22. Forward Derrick Favors scored 14 points to go with 10 rebounds, and guard Rodney Hood added 17 points for the Jazz.
Forward Gordon Hayward scored 18 points for Utah, but the Jazz were outscored 56-28 inside the paint. Guard Trey Burke, who with Burks is part of the NBA’s second-leading scoring tandem off the bench, scored 12 points for the Jazz.
For Sacramento, Casspi’s seventh straight double-digit scoring game tied a career-best set in his rookie season of 2009-10, and included three 3-pointers. In all, the Kings made 10 of them.
The biggest of those came from forward Marco Belinelli, who was mired in his own slump. Belinelli swished a 3-pointer coming out of a Kings timeout that coach George Karl called after Utah’s 15-3 run sliced a 14-point Kings lead to 86-84 with 10:32 left in the fourth quarter. Belinelli, who had been 2-for-19 from distance over his previous five games, made 2 of 5 against Utah.
Belinelli’s 3-pointer started a 7-0 Sacramento run that put Utah away. Sacramento scored 12 straight points after Utah’s game-opening bucket and never trailed the rest of the way.
NOTES: Utah C Rudy Gobert has missed three straight games and five overall for Utah. The Jazz were surrendering 11 more points per game without Gobert and allowing opponents to shoot 44.7 percent from the field. Utah’s opponents shoot only 41.8 percent when Gobert plays. … The 43 points scored by C DeMarcus Cousins during the Kings’ three-game road trip (a game vs. Boston in Mexico City was considered a home contest) marked his lowest three-game scoring output since he totaled 36 at Oklahoma City, New Orleans and Houston from Jan. 19-22, 2014. … F Gordon Hayward, F Derrick Favors and G Alec Burks brought in a combined scoring average of 51.4 points per game, more than half of Utah’s overall total of 97.3. … Sacramento used 12 starting lineups in its first 22 games, and none for more than three games in a row. … Burks and G Trey Burke are the NBA’s second-highest scoring tandem off the bench, combining to average 26.1 points.