Clippers beat the Sacramento Kings, 117-108

The Clippers again won the second game on back-to-back nights with a 117-108 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday at Sleep Trail Arena. The night before, they lost the the Cleveland Cavaliers at Staples Center, 126-121.

Midway through the third quarter on Saturday the score was tied, 64-64. Then the Clippers went on a 13-0 run behind Blake Griffin over the next three minutes to take their biggest advantage of the game, 79-66. The Kings clawed their way back, scoring eight of the final 10 points in the quarter to enter the fourth only trailing by five points, 83-78.

The Clippers pushed their lead back to as many as 13 points early in the fourth quarter behind six consecutive points from Jamal Crawford. The Kings cut the deficit to five in the final four minutes, but couldn’t complete the comeback.

Matt Barnes scored 22 points in the first half and finished with 26, trying his season high set against the Milwuakee Bucks on Dec. 13. Barnes also had 10 rebounds.

Griffin finished with 30 points on 11-for-16 shooting, four assists and four rebounds. Chris Paul added 12 points on four-for-13 shooting and had nine assists.

It was the Clippers’ (27-14) fourth straight win in Sacramento against the Kings (16-24), though when the teams played in L.A. on Nov. 8, the Kings won, 98-72.

Jason Thompson led the Kings with 23 points and 22 rebounds while Rudy Gay finished with 22 points and five rebounds. Former Clippers guard Darren Collison added 17 points on seven-for-15 shooting for the Kings.

The Kings outrebounded the Clippers, 54-34, but the Clippers forced the Kings to commit 18 turnovers while only turning the ball over five times.

The Clippers have Sunday off before hosting the Boston Celtics on Monday at 12:30 p.m.