The Tribune

ORLANDO, Florida (AP) -- Garrett Temple took over in the fourth quarter and led the struggling Sacramento Kings to a big win.

Temple scored 19 of his career-high 34 points in the final quarter to lift the Kings to a 105-99 win over the Orlando Magic last night.

Willie Cauley-Stein had 21 points and nine rebounds and Buddy Hield added 13 points for the Kings, who stopped an eight-game losing streak. Temple accounted for all of Sacramento's points during a 17-6 run that put the Kings ahead 103-97 with 23.5 seconds to go.

"Garrett was in a rhythm," teammate Vince Carter said. "He was out there with veteran guys who just know how to make the right play. It was us being cognizant of 'Hey, the hot guy's open, get it to him immediately.' And it worked out that way."

Temple, whose previous career best was 23 points in the fourth game of this season, started 33 games before being demoted. Against Orlando, he hit all seven field goal attempts in the fourth quarter, including three 3-pointers. The rest of the Kings were 2 for 12 in the period.

"Garrett has been a fantastic leader for us and I couldn't be happier," Sacramento coach Dave Joerger said. "He's the ultimate professional. For him to have this kind of night, I'm just tickled. He deserves it."

Temple's big game came with Kings regulars Zach Randolph and George Hill out of the lineup.

Evan Fournier led the Magic with 22 points and Elfrid Payton had 21 points, seven assists and seven rebounds. Aaron Gordon added 16 and Jonathon Simmons had 14 for Orlando, which struggled mightily to score in the final quarter.

Magic coach Frank Vogel didn't know whether to direct his postgame ire at his team's unwillingness to guard Temple or its sloppy play offensively.

The Magic were 6 of 20 from the field in the final period and committed four turnovers.

"You gotta cool a guy like (Temple) down and nobody could get it done," Vogel said.

"Offensively, we didn't make great decisions in the fourth quarter. Their switching turned us into one-on-one players and we're not a one-on-one team."

Payton's pull-up jumper with 7:13 remaining had given the Magic 91-86 lead. Orlando made just one more field goal -- a dunk by Bismack Biyombo with 5:33 left -- before Payton made a meaningless layup with under one second to play.

Sacramento rallied from an 11-point third-quarter deficit to take a 94-93 lead on Temple's 3-pointer with 5:11 left in the game. Temple followed that with two perimeter jumpers and another 3-pointer to help the Kings to a 101-97 lead with 1:31 to go. The two teams played dead even for the first 30 minutes of the game before Simmons hit a hot streak that gave the Magic their biggest lead of the game, 79-68. The Magic forward scored 14 points in the third period, including three 3-pointers and a three-point play.

However, as was the case all game, the Magic defence gave up the lead almost as fast as they got it.

Hield started the comeback with a 3-pointer and Cauley-Stein continued to be unguardable in the paint. His dunk cut the deficit to 82-77 by the end of the third quarter. A three-point play by Skal Labissiere made it a one-point game with over minutes to play.

UP NEXT

Kings: At Miami, where the Kings haven't won in 16 years, on Thursday night.

Magic: At Indiana on Saturday night. Orlando is 0-2 vs. Pacers this season.