LOS ANGELES (AP)—Cuttino Mobley is fitting in well with the Sacramento Kings.
Acquired last week in a trade that sent Doug Christie to Orlando, Mobley hit a 3-pointer with 59.6 seconds left to help the Kings beat the Los Angeles Clippers 89-93 on Monday. Mobley finished with 19 points in his second game with Sacramento.
“He gives us another option out there that’s going to really help us,” Kings coach Rick Adelman said. “We felt that we needed to make a change, and we had a chance to get a proven scorer who was younger than Doug was.”
Chris Webber led the Kings with 23 points and 14 rebounds.
Sacramento, the second-highest scoring team in the league, went more than 4 1/2 minutes without a field goal before Brad Miller’s layup and a hook shot by Peja Stojakovic tied it at 79 with 3:45 to play.
Elton Brand hit a short hook shot to give the Clippers their last lead, 83-82, with 1:16 left. But Mobley connected from the right sideline, putting the Kings ahead to stay.
“Chris found me across the court, and it was big for him to look over to me instead of taking the shot himself,” Mobley said. “He trusted me enough, and that’s what it’s all about with our team. I’m having fun, man. I’m loving it. I’m just trying to do what they want me to do out there, and that’s score and give us some energy.”
Mobley and Mike Bibby each added a pair of free throws in the final 36 seconds. The Kings, who also beat the Clippers on Martin Luther King Jr. Day last season at Staples Center, have won the last seven meetings—including Saturday night’s 99-95 victory in Sacramento. The Kings have won four straight overall and eight of 10.
Brand had 24 points and 10 rebounds for Los Angeles. Second-year center Chris Kaman, who scored a career-high 23 points on Saturday, tied a career high with 15 rebounds and had 18 points.
But Clippers leading scorer Corey Maggette shot 2-for-17 and had just 10 points. He missed seven of his first eight attempts, including a 21-foot airball from the right baseline with 3:26 left in the first.
Maggette missed at least 10 shots for the ninth time this season. The Clippers are 1-8 in those games, including Friday night’s win over Miami, when Maggette hit a game-winning buzzer-beater in double overtime to finish 8-for-22.
“I didn’t play well and I hurt the team,” said Maggette, who shot 6-for-30 in the home-and-home set with Sacramento. “I was getting good looks, but it was just like an iron lid on the rim. You go through those nights where you’re not shooting the ball well, but throughout all that, we still had an opportunity to win this game.”
Bobby Simmons, averaging 18 points in his previous six games, picked up two fouls in the first 3:10 and had only 12 points in 29 minutes.
Injury-plagued guard Kerry Kittles, who replaced Simmons at small forward after the second foul, left the game with 10:06 left in the second quarter because of a groin strain. Kittles, who joined the Clippers in an offseason trade with New Jersey, already has missed 26 games because of knee and back ailments.
“I hurt it a couple of games ago and just re-aggravated it today,” Kittles said. “I would say it’s doubtful for the next game.”
Miller, who fouled out Saturday for the third time this season, got a technical foul from referee Michael Smith after a slam dunk by Brand with 7:56 left in the third. Simmons converted the ensuing free throw, then hit a 19-footer before Brand put the Clippers ahead 58-55 with a layup and an 18-footer.
The Kings temporarily became unglued after Miller’s third foul resulted in a three-point play by Simmons, and Rick Brunson intercepted a pass by Miller that led to a hook shot by Brand that extended the Clippers’ margin to 63-55 with 4:29 left in the third. But Webber’s 3-pointer put Sacramento back in front, 66-65 with 40 seconds left in the period.
“Record-wise, that’s one of the best teams in the NBA, so we can always take it as a positive that we played them well. But we want to get the victories,” Brand said. “It was very disappointing, especially the way these two games ended. We had a shot in both of them.”
Bibby and Mobley drained 3-pointers and Webber hit a pair of 20-footers during a 14-0 run that helped Sacramento build a 30-17 lead through one quarter. The Clippers trailed by as many as 14 points early in the second before narrowing the gap to 46-43 by halftime.
Notes
Among the crowd of 17,139 was Bibby’s father, Henry, who was fired as Southern California’s basketball coach on Dec. 6. … Mikki Moore missed his second straight game because of a sprained right ankle.
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