Jordan Ford and Neemias Queta help Kings top Hawks on Day 1 of Las Vegas Summer League

Jordan Ford controlled the game early and Neemias Queta dominated late to help the Kings come away with a win on Day 1 of the Las Vegas Summer League.

Ford scored a game-high 20 points and Queta recorded a double-double, leading the Kings to an 80-76 victory over the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night at Cox Pavilion.

Ford, a former Folsom High School star who spent last season with the G League Stockton Kings, made 8 of 14 from the field and 2 of 5 from 3-point range. He also had two rebounds, two assists and two steals.

“I love to play basketball, and doing it for my hometown team, it’s been great,” Ford said. “All the guys have been great. We’ve connected off the court as well, so I’m having a great time.”

Ford received high praise from Kings assistant and summer league coach Luke Loucks after the game.

“I thought Jordan Ford was spectacular,” Loucks said. “Jordan has been a heck of a player all camp. He has controlled the pace for us. He has executed everything we’ve asked. He has guarded the ball and I thought he did such a good job controlling the game in the fourth.”

Queta stuffed the stat sheet in a variety of ways with 13 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two steals. He scored nine points during a decisive stretch in the fourth quarter.

“I feel like we played a good brand of basketball tonight,” Queta said. “We started off pretty well. We got up a few points at the half and then they kind of fought back and it was a back of back and forth, but we were able to respond the right way and finish the game strong.”

There was a large Kings contingent sitting courtside, including team owner Vivek Ranadivé, general manager Monte McNair, assistant general manager Wes Wilcox and vice president of basketball engagement Alvin Gentry. They were joined by several players, including Keegan Murray, Sasha Vezenkov, Kevin Huerter, Davion Mitchell and Trey Lyles. The Hawks also had several members of their NBA roster in attendance, most notably All-Star point guard Trae Young.

The Kings led 19-16 at the end of first quarter and 34-32 at the half following a late bucket from Ford. The Kings carried a 60-55 lead into the fourth quarter, but three consecutive 3-pointers from Brady Manek sparked a 12-0 run that put the Hawks up 67-60 with 7:25 to play.

Ford stopped the run with a stepback 3 from the top of the arc. Manek answered with another bomb to give Atlanta a 70-63 lead, but then Queta went to work, scoring the next nine points for Sacramento.

That stretch included a spectacular sequence in which Queta grabbed his own offensive rebound, threw down a reverse dunk, drew a foul and converted the three-point play to cut the deficit to one with 4:10 remaining.

“Neemie can really score,” Ford said. “He can go get it, so we saw a matchup that we liked for our team and we just went to it until they’re going to stop it. He really took over that fourth quarter and it was huge for our team. We really needed that from him.”

The Kings went 2-0 at the California Classic in Sacramento earlier this week. This was their first game without Murray, an All-Rookie forward who was shut down for the summer after scoring 41 points against the Miami Heat on Wednesday at Golden 1 Center.

“Obviously, we lost Keegan,” Loucks said. “We lost a lot of scoring, so these games, if we’re going to win, they’ve got to be scrappy. We have to score by committee, which I love – I love that style – and then we’ve got to be super physical and into the ball defensively.”