Portland Trail Blazers (2-0) beat Sacramento Kings (0-2) 128-120 on the road on Friday, October 23.
How it unfolded
The Trail Blazers trailed by 5 at halftime and by 13 through three quarters, finishing with a 8-point win.
What decided it
The Trail Blazers gave the ball away on 8.6% of their possessions while the Kings did so 12.9% of the time and the Trail Blazers shot 55.2% on an effective basis to 50.5% for the Kings. Protecting the ball is an easy edge to overlook, but each turnover costs a shot.
The Kings did win one battle, the free-throw line: FT rate of 30.8 against 22.9. The Trail Blazers made up for it elsewhere.
The game played at about 107 possessions per team. The Trail Blazers scored 120 points per 100 possessions and the Kings scored 112.5, a difference of 7.5.
The Trail Blazers' reserves also made a difference, outscoring the opposing bench 37-22.
Who made the difference
Domantas Sabonis (SAC) posted the best line of the night by Game Score (30): 27 pts, 19 reb, 10 ast on 10-13 shooting. The team was -3 in the minutes Domantas played.
For the Trail Blazers, Deni Avdija was the best of the rest at 20.4: 26 pts, 6 reb, 6 ast on 8-16 shooting.
Domantas Sabonis (27 pts, 19 reb, 10 ast) recorded a double-double.
Game Score is a single number that weighs points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, shooting efficiency, fouls and turnovers. It is not an official stat, just a quick way to rank lines.
What it means
The pre-game Win Meter had it close to a coin flip, at about 61% for the Trail Blazers.
Across the last 8 meetings in our records, Portland Trail Blazers lead 6-2.
The Trail Blazers are now 2-0, and the Kings are 0-2. The Trail Blazers last five before this game: W-L-L-L-W.
Written automatically by Tip Off Live software from box score data. Ratings and probabilities are our own model estimates.