Kings Takeaways: What We Learned in 127-116 Loss to Trail Blazers

BOX SCORE

PORTLAND -- Short-handed and overmatched, the Sacramento Kings competed well, but came up empty Wednesday evening against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Bogdan Bogdanovic missed the game with a right knee contusion, leaving the Kings without three of their top six rotational players. The reserves fought the good fight, but in the end, they ran out of gas, falling by a final of 127-116 for the 12th straight loss at the Moda Center.  

Here are three takeaways as the Kings made it a game in Portland, but fell to 8-12 on the season.  

Battle at the five

Richaun Holmes and Hassan Whiteside went to war in the post. 

Holmes finished with a career-high 28 points on 11-for-14 shooting. He added 10 rebounds to pick up his seven double-double of the season. 

Whiteside pounded his former team with 22 points on 8-for-10 shooting and chipped in 16 rebounds, seven assists and three blocks. 

While neither was able to slow the other, it was an entertaining matchup between two highly efficient bigs. 

Advantage: Holmes

Battle at the two

While Holmes and Whiteside were duking it out in the post, a couple of guards caught fire from long range.

Buddy Hield struggled early, going 1-of-7 to open the night. He shot his way out of the slump in the first quarter, finishing the first 12 minutes with 14 points on 6-for-13 shooting. 

Hield kept scoring throughout the night, dropping in 23 points to go with seven assists, six rebounds and a pair of steals.

On the Portland side, CJ McCollum had a huge game. The Blazers starting shooting guard dropped in 33 points on 14-for-22 shooting and all of his career-high four blocks came against Hield in the first half.

Advantage: McCollum

Team effort

The Kings are beat up. De'Aaron Fox and Marvin Bagley continue to miss games, but against Portland, they were without Bogdan Bogdanovic as well. 

While it came in a losing effort, Yogi Ferrell, Nemanja Bjelica and Trevor Ariza were all impactful when they stepped on the floor. 

Ferrell was an offensive spark plug, scoring 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting off the bench. 

In his second game back with the team after an extended absence, Ariza added 11 points, six rebounds and two blocks. 

Bjelica stuffed the stat sheet with 17 points, seven rebounds, four assists, two blocks and a steal.