Rockets forward Dillon Brooks kisses Kings goodbye after hitting fourth-quarter 3-pointers

Houston Rockets forward Dillon Brooks threw up three fingers and stared down the Sacramento bench after hitting a big 3-pointer in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s game against the Kings. Brooks blew the Kings a kiss moments later after burying another long ball to seal Sacramento’s fate.

Brooks had 26 points and nine rebounds to lead the Rockets to a 107-89 victory over the Kings before a sellout crowd of 18,055 at Toyota Center in Houston. Brooks made 9 of 14 from the field and 2 of 4 from 3-point range, both coming during a decisive stretch late in the fourth quarter.

“(Brooks) got in a rhythm,” Kings guard Davion Mitchell said. “He had a really good game. He hits shots. He got comfortable. He’s a basketball player. We’re all competitive and he hit shots. He’s going to talk trash. If he wasn’t hitting shots, he wouldn’t be doing the same thing, so it’s OK. We’ll live with the results and we’ll see them again.”

The Kings will face the Rockets again Monday in the second game of a two-game set in Houston. De’Aaron Fox’s status remains in question after he missed the past two games with a right ankle sprain.

Kings coach Mike Brown said his team should be highly motivated for the rematch, but not because Brooks flexed on their bench.

“If I was Dillon, I’d be flexing, too, so I’m OK with that if he wants to do that,” Brown said. “But that shouldn’t motivate us to play harder come Monday. Our performance and us looking in the mirror at ourselves should make us want to go play harder on both ends of the floor (and) go play the right way. I thought tonight we didn’t play as hard as we could. We didn’t play the right way all the time, and I thought their physicality bothered us to a point where when we were missing shots, we kind of gave in at times.”

Jabari Smith Jr. had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Rockets (2-3). Fred VanVleet had 21 points, six rebounds and 12 assists. Alperen Sengun finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and six assists.

Malik Monk came off the bench to produce 18 points and seven assists for the Kings (2-3). Harrison Barnes scored 13 points. JaVale McGee had 12 points and six rebounds.

Domantas Sabonis recorded another double-double with 11 points, 15 rebounds and four assists. He became the first Kings player to have a double-double in the first five games of a season since Chris Webber in 1998-99.

Kings forward Keegan Murray was held to seven points on 3-of-12 shooting from the field and 1-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. Over the past four games, Murray is shooting 33.3% from the field and 20% from beyond the arc.

“It’s just shots not going in,” Murray said. “Nothing I can really do about it. Just make shots.”

The Kings are struggling to find their offensive rhythm while trying to answer Brown’s call for more physicality and better defense. They shot 38.1% against the Rockets and went 11 of 41 (.268) from long distance.

“That’s the tough part, trying to play as fast as they want, and also trying to play really good defense,” Mitchell said. “It’s tough, but I think really good teams accomplish that and that’s how teams become really good teams when they can do both. So, we’ve got to figure it out, and it’s only the fourth game or fifth game of the season, so we have a lot of room to improve and I think we will.”

When asked if the emphasis and exertion on defense is hurting the Kings offensively, Monk agreed they must “figure out how to do both.”

The Rockets lost their first three games before beating the Charlotte Hornets 128-119 on Wednesday. They aren’t expected to be a playoff contender, but they have an interesting roster featuring young talent and a couple of savvy veterans under first-year coach Ime Udoka.

“They added some veterans to their club, some guys who have won in this league,” Brown said. “Fred VanVleet, especially, and Dillon Brooks. You can tell that some of those veterans are helping those young guys out because they’re playing a little more together and they’re playing harder. You don’t seem to get the easy baskets that you did, especially in transition and stuff like that, as in the past. Ime’s doing a nice job.”

Poor start, bad finish

Brown was not pleased with his team’s play during a dreadful opening period. The Kings went 3 of 12 from the field to start the game while the Rockets made 9 of 14 to build an early 22-8 lead. Sacramento went scoreless for nearly three minutes late in the first quarter and trailed by as many as 17.

The Kings stormed back to cut the deficit to five early in the second quarter following 3-pointers by Colby Jones and Chris Duarte and a pair of three-point plays by McGee. Houston quickly pushed the lead back to 13, but Sacramento was within six at the halftime break after shooting 54.5% in the second quarter.

The Rockets maintained a slim lead until Barnes made a corner 3 to put the Kings up 65-64 — their first lead of the game — with 5:00 to play in the third quarter. The Rockets led 71-68 going into the fourth quarter despite going 3 of 23 from the field and 1 of 11 from 3-point range in the third.

The Kings got within two on a basket by Monk early in the fourth quarter, but the Rockets staged a 10-2 run to go up 90-79, prompting Brown to take a timeout with 5:42 to play. Monk made a runner in the lane to give the Kings a glimmer of hope, but Brooks made backbreaking 3-pointers on Houston’s next two possessions to spark a 9-1 run that put the Rockets up by 17 with 3:36 remaining.

“I thought we had some decent shots in the fourth quarter, but none of them went in,” Brown said. “We couldn’t find anybody to make a shot tonight and that made it tough. The more we missed, we allowed that to deflate us on the other end of the floor and it became easier for them to make (shots). We didn’t put up any resistance at all as the quarter went along and we were missing shots, so we need to do a better job of fighting — no matter what’s going on — on both ends of the floor.

“If we miss shots, we miss shots, but continue to get stops and see if we can make this a one- or two-possession game down the stretch. I thought our resolve was not good, especially in the fourth quarter, and that’s something that for sure cannot be habitual because that’s what losing teams do, and that’s not what we are.”

Jerey retirement

Fox returned to his alma mater to have his No. 5 jersey retired Friday night at Cypress Lakes High School in nearby Katy, Texas, about 30 miles east of Houston, and he wasn’t alone.

Fox was accompanied by wife Recee, baby Reign and a large Kings contingent, including most of Fox’s coaches and teammates. Those in attendance included Brown, assistant coach Jordi Fernandez and teammates such as Kevin Huerter, Harrison Barnes, Keegan Murray and Domantas Sabonis.

“It was cool to see where he came from and his roots,” Murray said. “He’s been in the organization for a while, so he’s kind of one of the core guys. We want to be an organization that is kind of like a family. I feel like we resemble that and that’s why a lot of our guys showed up.”

Brown shared similar thoughts.

“It was awesome,” Brown said. “To be able to go back and see where somebody is from and be able to touch the people that he grew up with and take a deeper dive into his life, back when he was a child, it was a lot of fun for me as I’m sure for the rest of the staff and the players. They’re a connected group and any time somebody has something like that, whether it’s Foxy or someone else, there’s going to be support, so it didn’t surprise me that all those people with the Kings organization came out to witness such a special event.”

Up next

The Kings and Rockets will meet again Monday in the second game of a two-game set in Houston. The Kings will then return to Sacramento to open a three-game homestand against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday at Golden 1 Center.

Upcoming schedule

Nov. 6 at Houston Rockets

Nov. 8 vs. Portland Trail Blazers

Nov. 10 vs. Oklahoma City Thunder

Nov. 13 vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

Nov. 15 at Los Angeles Lakers