SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Wesley Matthews scored 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter and the Portland Trail Blazers pulled away for a 107-102 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.
LaMarcus Aldridge had 20 points and 10 rebounds for the Blazers, who had dropped three of four. Andre Miller had 19 points, Nicolas Batum added 17 and Patty Mills finished with 14.
Rookie center DeMarcus Cousins had 28 points and 11 rebounds for the Kings, who have lost two straight and six of eight. Marcus Thornton scored 26 points, Beno Udrih added 13 and Jermaine Taylor and Jason Thompson each had 10.
Portland put together a 7-0 run to take a 102-95 lead with 51 seconds left. Batum made a wide-open 3-pointer, Gerald Wallace dunked off an alley-oop pass from Matthews and Aldridge converted a long jumper during the surge.
The Trail Blazers have won a season-high five consecutive road games.
Sacramento played its first game in Power Balance Pavilion but it’s unclear how long the Kings will remain in their renamed home. The building had been called Arco Arena since the inaugural game on Nov. 8, 1988.
On Tuesday, the Maloof ownership group received an extension from the NBA for filing an application for relocation next season, setting up a fight between California cities for the franchise. The Kings already are in talks with Anaheim, which is looking for an NBA team to share the Honda Center with the NHL’s Ducks.
Sacramento drew its second sellout crowd of the season on Monday night, thanks to an organized effort by fans to launch a campaign to keep the team. But there were plenty of empty seats — attendance was 12,286 — against the Blazers as new reports painted an even grimmer picture of the team remaining in the city.
