Sacramento Kings beat Maccabi Haifa 96-135

The Sacramento Kings played host to Maccabi Hunter Haifa (Israel-Winner League) in the latest NBA-v-Europe preseason game. The Kings pulled no punches and handily cruised to a 96-135 win in front of a home crowd. Ben McLemore led six other Kings in double figures with 18 points in 24 minutes off Sacramento’s bench.

Sacramento opened up strong and quickly got into their offensive flow. Despite the wide distribution of minutes across its players, the Kings dominated with some efficient scoring. They were unstoppable with 53-of-79 (67.1%) shots from the field and 10-of-19 (52.6%) from three-point range. Despite Oklahoma City Thunder’s praise for how European teams move the ball well, it was the NBA club that was better at making the extra pass and finding the open guy in this one. The Kings were generous with the ball, dishing out 30 assists for the game, compared to 19 by Maccabi Haifa.

The game was out of reach by halftime, with the Kings’ lead ballooning to 44-71. The second half had more of the same aggressive play from the hosts and Maccabi Haifa fought valiantly, but could not do enough to either slow down Sacramento or mount momentum of their own.

Five Maccabi Haifa wound up scoring in double figures in this one. Amit Simhon led the charge with 17 points and three treys. Jarrid Famous and Alex Perez each chipped in 14 points of their own.

DeMarcus Cousins scored 14 points in just 17 minutes of action on the floor. Anthony Tolliver was flawless from downtown (3-3) and added 14 points as well.