Kings fight back to make Sacramento 'proud' with dramatic win over Bucks

Jason Anderson, The Sacramento Bee on Nov 1, 2025

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MILWAUKEE — The Milwaukee Bucks couldn’t miss early in Saturday’s game against the Sacramento Kings.

The fans even got in on the act with one young man hitting a halfcourt shot to win a prize at the end of the first period. At that point, the Kings appeared to be headed for a lopsided loss, but they flipped the script with a show of resilience that left coach Doug Christie beaming with pride.

Zach LaVine produced his fifth 30-point game of the season to lead the Kings to a dramatic 135-133 victory over the Bucks before a sellout crowd of 17,341 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.

“I think that part of believing in something, sometimes you need to see it and you need to know it’s true and it’s there,” Christie said. “That team right there showed the type of fight that I think the whole city of Sacramento would be extremely proud of. So, for me, huge, huge win. It’s only one, but you continue to fight like that in this league and you’ll win.”

LaVine scored a game-high 31 points to help the Kings (2-4) snap a three-game losing streak. DeMar DeRozan scored 29 points.

Domantas Sabonis put up 24 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. Dennis Schroder had 24 points, five rebounds and seven assists while Russell Westbrook came off the bench to post 12 points and a season-high 10 assists.

Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo had 26 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists for the Bucks (4-2). Kyle Kuzma scored 22 points. AJ Green and Gary Trent Jr. scored 17 points apiece.

Green intentionally missed the second of two free throws with 1.1 second remaining and his team trailing by two. Antetokounmpo came up with the offensive rebound, but LaVine stripped the ball from his hands as time expired.

Schroder was asked how badly the Kings needed a win after losing four of their first five games.

“We needed it bad,” he said. “Winning always feels good. If you lose, you try to figure it out. Losing is not a good feeling, so this one feels great. It’s really, really hard to win in this league, and we pulled one out today.”

Up next

The Kings will conclude a four-game road trip when they visit the Denver Nuggets on Monday at Ball Arena

The Nuggets (3-2) had won three in a row before suffering a 109-107 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday. Jamal Murray is averaging 26.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists. Three-time MVP Nikola Jokic is averaging 20.4 points, 14.4 rebounds and 10.8 assists.