SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gorgui Dieng, Zach LaVine and Nemanja Bjelica each scored 18 points, and the Minnesota Timberwolves put on a fourth-quarter spurt to beat the Sacramento Kings 105-97 on Thursday in the penultimate game at Sleep Train Arena.
Bjelica's total was a career-best and helped Minnesota back up its victory on the road against the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors with a solid win over one of the league's worst teams. The Kings (31-48) followed up a three-game home winning streak with three straight losses in their building and will miss the playoffs for the 10th straight season.
Minnesota (27-52) will miss the playoffs for the 12th straight year, but has won five of its past eight on the road including the win over the Warriors, who had won 55 of their previous 56 in Oakland.
Rookie of the Year favorite Karl-Anthony Towns added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Minnesota. Timberwolves forward Shabazz Muhammad, who scored a career-high 35 points against Golden State, finished with 10 points and two rebounds and made only 3 of 10 shots from the field.
The Kings decided to rest scoring leader DeMarcus Cousins and NBA assists leader Rajon Rondo. They are 1-2 in the three games both have sat out this month and 5-17 when one of them misses a contest.
ADVERTISEMENT
Darren Collison scored 19 points and Quincy Acy added 17 to pace the Kings.
Rudy Gay scored 13 points but made only 4 of 15 shots for Sacramento in his return to the lineup. Gay, Darren Collison and Kosta Koufos all missed Tuesday's home loss against Portland because of the team's decision to have them rest. Koufos also was back and contributed 10 rebounds.
Sacramento plays its final home game in the arena where they've played since 1988 on Saturday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. They will move into the Golden 1 Center in downtown Sacramento next season.
The finale is expected to be met with the same excitement that the new arena seems to be creating. Kings president Chris Granger announced Thursday on Twitter that the team has sold its full allotment of approximately 11,000 season tickets.
NOTES: With C DeMarcus Cousins and G Rajon Rondo sitting out to rest, the Kings trotted out their 16th starting lineup in 26 games since the All-Star break. Sacramento has used 32 starting lineups in 79 games this season after needing 41 in the two previous seasons combined. ... Timberwolves G Andrew Wiggins has 10 30-point contests this season, joining C Kevin Garnett, F Kevin Love, G/F Tony Campbell and C Al Jefferson as the only players in the franchise's 27-year history to do so. ... Rookie of the Year favorite C Karl-Anthony Towns already has set Minnesota's franchise rookie records for rebounds and blocks in a season, and needed to score 54 points in his final four games to break Christian Laettner's rookie scoring mark set in 1992-93. ... Kings F Quincy Acy received the team's Oscar Robertson Triple-Double Award for exemplifying excellence on and off the court. Acy, averaging 4.8 points in 14.2 minutes per his 56 contests, has been the Kings' most outgoing player in the community.
