CLEVELAND, Ohio — The velvet ropes are out and there’s a line down the block.
It’s one of the NBA’s most exclusive clubs, thanks to the play of the Cleveland Cavaliers this season.
But on Sunday, the Sacramento Kings became only the fourth team in the league to join it, by beating the Eastern Conference’s top team for the second time this year.
With the 120-113 takedown of Cleveland, they join a club that also includes the Boston Celtics, Atlanta Hawks and Houston Rockets, the only other squads to beat Cleveland more than once.
“They get into your body,“ said Kings guard Zach LaVine. ”We understand the way they play. They’re a great defensive team. They got two guards that can really score, but they have bigs that can defend really well. So transition was a big thing for us, making some easy baskets and I got some easy shots and I was able to get it going.”
To say LaVine was able to get going was an understatement.
He led all scorers with 37 on 15 of 21 shooting, including hitting seven of 11 triples.
Maybe the most impressive part of his output is he did all of that without making a trip to the foul line.
But the Kings still very much had the advantage there too. They hit 18 of their 22 free throw attempts, while the Cavs were just 11 of 19 (57.9%).
It was the third-worst mark of the season for the Cavs from the line.
“Trying to get to the free throw line against them is big,” Kings coach Doug Christie said. “That’s huge if you can draw fouls, because part of where they excel at is when the foul isn’t called. They take that ball and they are right back at you. Donovan (Mitchell) is fantastic in transition. He finds people, (Max) Strus and those guys are running to the corners and they’re knocking down 3.
In the first game between these two teams on March 19, a 123-119 win for Sacramento, the Kings took advantage of Cavs’ defensive miscues and got 14 offensive rebounds compared to Cleveland’s eight.
On Sunday, the Cavs actually bested them on the offensive glass, 13-8, but Cleveland wasn’t able to do much more with those second opportunities, only outscoring the Kings 12-11 in second-chance points.
