Kings shock Bulls; Artest and Wallace have peaceful night

The shot capped off a wild final 15 seconds, which saw the Bulls squander a four-point lead.

First, Mike Bibby’s fadeaway three-ball from the corner with 14.2 seconds left brought the Kings within a point, at 88-87. Then, on the ensuing Bulls’ possession, Chris Duhon’s inbound pass was wide of his intended target and rolled out of bounds.

The Kings turned that into a one-point lead with just over six seconds left, when Martin drained a shot from the right baseline.

On the final possession of the game, another miscue cost the Bulls a shot to win. Duhon crossed from the left to the right side on the dribble, but before he could look up to find a passing lane, the ball bounced off his foot right to Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Abdur-Rahim held the ball until throwing a deep pass as the final seconds ticked away, giving Sacramento its first win of the year.

"I can’t give our guys enough credit for the way they played tonight," said Kings head coach Eric Musselman. "This was a great effort for us. It was a collective effort where everyone contributed."

Martin led all scorers with a career-high 30 points. Mike Bibby poured in 23 to go with nine assists, but had 11 turnovers.

Ron Artest backed that up with 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Kings, who have beaten the Bulls in 14 of their last 15 meetings.

Luol Deng scored 29 points, while Kirk Hinrich had 15. Andres Nocioni added 14 off the bench, and Ben Wallace registered nine points and 13 boards for the Bulls, who lost their home opener.

"Obviously that is a game we should have won," Bulls head coach Scott Skiles said. "We put ourselves in a position to win with a flurry from the last five minute mark on down. We were unable to close it out."

The game marked the first time Artest and Wallace played against each other since the infamous brawl between the Pacers and Pistons in November, 2004. Unlike that game, in which the melee spilled into the stands, there was no hostility between the two on Friday though.

Sacramento jumped out to an early 11-6 lead, but the Bulls erased that with an 11-3 run to take a 17-14 lead after one. Another 11-3 run in the second gave Chicago some breathing room as they eventually took a 40-34 lead at the break. The Kings were not helped by their 11 turnovers in the first 24 minutes.

In the second half, the Bulls led by as many as 15 points, but the Kings began to chip away at the deficit, eventually clawing back to 58-57 with 1:30 remaining in the third. They would take the lead, 60-58, on a Martin three- point play with 1:05 left, but the Bulls managed to tie the game on a Duhon layup, 62-62, heading into the final quarter.

The start of the fourth featured three lead changes, as each team struggled to shoot its way out of their game-long funk. Eventually, the Bulls forged ahead by eight, 81-73, with 2:52 left on a Nocioni layup.

The Kings would not be denied, though. An Artest layup with 49 seconds left got the Kings within three, 85-82. Deng then made only one of two free throws with 23 ticks left, and the lead was four. After Artest’s running layup cut the deficit to two, Hinrich sank a pair from the charity stripe to bring the lead up to four, 88-84.

"I don’t know what to say," said a dejected Hinrich. "We absolutely gave this game away. They made a few shots, but we made far too many mistakes. We should not have lost that game."

Game Notes

Chicago shot just 41 percent from the field and was 2-of-9 from beyond the arc, but Sacramento shot 37 percent...The Kings committed 26 turnovers for the game, while the Bulls turned it over 24 times.