DeMar DeRozan has been a valuable addition to the Kings, and he will have another chance to show why Saturday night when Sacramento visits his former team, the Toronto Raptors.
DeRozan scored 27 points and grabbed eight rebounds on Friday night in the Kings’ 123-115 road victory over the Atlanta Hawks.
The Kings have won the first two games of a four-game road trip and three straight overall.
The Raptors have dropped four in a row after losing 131-125 at home to the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday.
The Raptors will retire Hall of Famer Vince Carter’s No. 15 in a ceremony at the game on Saturday.
DeRozan, who was acquired by Sacramento from the Chicago Bulls in July as part of a three-team trade, has scored 20 or more points in each of his first five games with the Kings. The only other players to do that with the franchise were Chris Webber (seven straight) and Oscar Robertson (six in a row).
One of the reasons the Kings acquired DeRozan was to improve in free throws, both in attempts and shooting.
DeRozan went 8-for-10 at the foul line on Friday and the Kings were 26-for-30 (86.7 percent) for the game. Last season, they were last in the league in free-throw percentage at 74.5 percent.
“DeMar has always been a good free-throw shooter,” said Kings guard Kevin Huerter, who scored 10 points on Friday. “Having him be one of the guys that gets there consistently over the course of the game helps with that.”
De’Aaron Fox led Sacramento with 31 points on Friday, while Domantas Sabonis contributed 15 points and 14 rebounds.
Atlanta rallied to tie the game at 109-109 with 5:51 left. DeRozan helped hold off the Hawks by sinking four free throws in the final 1:25.
“We were a little frantic there,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “And we put the ball in DeMar’s hands, and you just see his rhythm, his pace. Really, really good. There’s no panic about anything he does.”
Fox said, “(DeRozan) just makes the game so easy. Obviously, teams don’t want to switch smaller guards on him, and then he’s able to get to the free-throw line so well. So he’s definitely a tough cover, but he’s such a willing passer that he makes the game so much easier for everybody else.”
The Raptors got 33 points and a career-best 12 assists from RJ Barrett on Friday and rallied in the second half after trailing by as many as 26 points. Gradey Dick added a career-best 31 points, and Jakob Poeltl had 19 points and 12 rebounds.
The Raptors trailed 43-19 after one quarter but got within six multiple times in the fourth quarter.
“The first quarter was definitely a problem,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “We found the rhythm in the second quarter and found our mojo and energy, and since that point we were playing really well.”
Toronto was without Scottie Barnes (right orbital fracture), Immanuel Quickley (pelvic contusion), Bruce Brown (knee surgery) and Kelly Olynyk (back strain).
Ja’Kobe Walter, who had been out with a shoulder injury, put up five points and six rebounds in 22 minutes during his NBA debut on Friday. He was drafted 19th overall this year.
“He has a really good nose for the ball,” Rajakovic said. “He’s a really good on-ball defender. He has very active hands, long arms. He’s very disruptive, and he has a very good feel to go get offensive and defensive rebounds.”