Kings at Celtics final score: Defense leads Boston to 99-89 win over Sacramento

Aside from DeMarcus Cousins, the Sacramento Kings simply couldn’t muster any level of consistent offense on Friday night, and as a result, the Boston Celtics grabbed a convincing 99-89 victory in their home building. The aforementioned Cousins turned his frustration from his All-Star “snub” into a breakout effort with 31 points and 16 rebounds, but as a team, the Kings shot just 35.6% from the floor, and that wasn’t nearly enough on the road.

Defense was the big-time calling card for the Celtics on this particular night, but their offense had a single stand-out much in the way that Sacramento’s did on the opposite side. Young big man Jared Sullinger exploded with 31 points (on 12 for 24 shooting) and 16 rebounds while playing the majority of his minutes at center, and the newly-acquired Jerryd Bayless picked up Boston off the bench with 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting.

Aside from Cousins, the Kings had a very difficult time scoring and that was easily explained in the numbers. The rest of the roster combined to shoot just 20-for-76 from the floor (26%), and that isn’t exactly a winning formula, regardless of the opponent and/or venue.

A battle between two teams with 33 losses each (yikes) doesn’t exactly grab a ton of national headlines, but with Cousins’ effort and Sullinger’s breakout, there was no shortage of storylines in this one.