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Kings close road trip in Indiana

Jan 31, 2015 - 2:46 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - The Indiana Pacers have won two of their last three and will continue a homestand Saturday night when they welcome the Sacramento Kings to Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

Indiana defeated the Orlando Magic, then lost the opener of this five-game stay to the Toronto Raptors. The Pacers got back into the win column on Thursday with a 103-82 drubbing of the New York Knicks.

Rodney Stuckey scored a game-high 22 points, Roy Hibbert recorded a double- double and the Pacers overcame an early double-digit deficit.

Hibbert totaled 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Pacers, who snapped their three-game home losing streak by dominating the second and third quarters with 67 points.

Solomon Hill and David West each scored 10 points for an offense that connected on 53 percent of their shots and owned a 50-26 edge in the paint.

"Every game is important for us from here on out. ... Our goal is to make the playoffs, and we're right there," said Stuckey, whose team is currently 12th in the Eastern Conference.

The Pacers welcome Central Division rivals, the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers on this stay.

The Kings have been a disaster of late. They own the longest active losing streak at eight games and will polish off a so-far winless road trip on Saturday night.

There was some good news in Sacramento recently. After originally being snubbed by Western Conference coaches as a reserve, DeMarcus Cousins was added to the team by Commissioner Adam Silver to replace the injured Kobe Bryant.

"I'm extremely excited to play in my first All-Star game," said Cousins.

After learning the news on Friday, Cousins and his Kings fell to LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, 101-90, at Quicken Loans Arena.

James returned from a one-game absence with 19 points, but Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love carried the load offensively for Cleveland, which won its ninth straight.

Cousins led Sacramento with 21 points and 13 rebounds, followed by Rudy Gay, who chipped in 20 points. Omri Casspi gave 15 points off the bench for Sacramento, while seven other Kings reserves scored just 15 combined.

Darren Collison chipped in 11 as the Kings shot 35.7 percent from the field and a dismal 3-for-18 from long range.

"We never really got into a good rhythm," said Kings coach Tyrone Corbin.

Sacramento will return home, starting Tuesday against the Golden State Warriors.

The Kings beat the Pacers by one in Sacramento on Dec. 5 to snap a four-game series losing streak. Indiana is 4-1 in its last five as the host in this series.