Omri Casspi lends DeMarcus Cousins (and his headband) a helping hand as Kings dominate Nuggets...

[Yahoo! Sports - NBA -]

This is how smoothly things running for the Sacramento Kings right now: They're even picking up assists on the bench. There's a lot to like about Omri Casspi fixing DeMarcus Cousins' slightly askew headband while they're seated on the bench. There's even more to like about a completely stone-faced Boogie reaching back for a no-look pound to show appreciation for his pal's good-looking-out. What Kings fans probably like most , though, is the score in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. [ Yahoo Sports Fantasy Basketball: Sign up and join a league today! ] Yep, that's a 21-point lead over the visiting Denver Nuggets just past the midpoint of the third quarter, just two nights after handling Brian Shaw's club on the road, on the second night of a back-to-back, in the famed visitor-destroying altitude of the Mile High City. The great news for Sacramentans is that it would get even more lopsided than that. The Kings hammered Denver on Wednesday, earning a 131-109 win in which they led by as many as 36 points early in the fourth quarter. They hung 40 on the Nuggets in the opening quarter, shooting 70 percent from the floor behind the continued marauding of the Cousins-Rudy Gay frontcourt. After Denver responded with a strong second frame to cut the deficit to a more manageable 14 points at intermission, Sacramento resumed blowing the Nugs' doors off in the third, ripping off a pair of monster runs — a 12-2 jolt early in the period and a 14-1 game-ender near the finish of the frame — that turned the last 12 minutes into a mere formality. At one point, noted bricklayer Reggie Evans even hit a jumper from the left elbow, sending the bench — most notably Casspi, who chipped in 11 points and six rebounds in 22 minutes off the pine — into hysterics: All the while, Michael Malone's crew stuck with the philosophy that has the Kings off to their best five-game start in the last 13 years . They pounded the Nuggets on the interior, beat a steady march to the charity stripe, and stayed stout enough defensively (especially in the first and third quarters) to take the fight out of the scuffling Nuggets. Sacramento shot 20-for-27 inside the restricted area behind the persistent bulldozing of Cousins, Gay and Carl Landry. Boogie, in particular, was breathtaking early, brutalizing Denver to the tune of 26 points and nine rebounds before halftime , and finished with 30 points and 11 rebounds in just 22 minutes before fouling out in the fourth quarter, becoming the first player since Moses Malone back in 1986 to go for 30 and 10 in 22 or fewer minutes.

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