Kemba’s 39 lift Hornets

Kemba Walker scored 25 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter and overtime to lead the Charlotte Hornets to a 127-122 home victory over the Sacramento Kings.

Walker’s put-back of a missed layup by Jeremy Lin clinched the game with 5.9 seconds left in OT. The Hornets improved to 8-6, while the Kings fell to 5-10. The Hornets trailed in the second half by as many as 22 points. The franchise record for deficits overcome is 24.

Walker put the Hornets ahead with seven-tenths of a second left in regulation. But the Kings forced overtime when forward Rudy Gay laid in the ball off an in-bounds lob pass from Rajon Rondo.

Walker gave the Hornets the lead on a pull-up jump shot with just over a minute left in regulation.

Kings guard Marco Belinelli tied the game at 110-110 on a 17-foot jump shot with 7.6 seconds left.

Three who mattered

Kemba Walker: His shooting and charge-taking were what kept this game from being a complete blowout second half.

DeMarcus Cousins: Kings big man’s long-range shooting makes it hard to protect the rim from drivers.

Rudy Gay: He’s problematic to guard because he can play so many positions.

Observations

▪  The Hornets got back Cody Zeller (left ankle strain) and P.J. Hairston (quadriceps contusion) from injuries Monday.

▪  Entering Monday’s game the Hornets shot precisely the same field-goal percentage this season (44.9 percent) as they are allowing.

▪  The Hornets are last in the NBA in offensive rebound percentage this season.

▪  Charlottean Seth Curry made his one NBA appearance at Time Warner Cable Arena Monday with the Kings. His brother, Stephen, will be here with the Golden State Warriors Dec. 2, the same night the Hornets honor Dell Curry. Seth was on the active roster, but didn’t play Monday.

▪  Hornets guard Troy Daniels was excused from Monday’s game to attend to a personal matter.

Worth mentioning

▪  The two teams combined to score 52 points in the lane in the first half.

▪  No Frank Kaminsky in the first half for the Hornets, when he typically gets most of his minutes. But he played in the second half.

▪  Strong as both teams were offensively in the first half, they still combined to shoot only 8-of-27 from 3-point range.

Report card

B OFFENSE: The Hornets pride themselves in being low-turnover. Not Monday, when they committed 19.

C DEFENSE: The Kings scored 91 in the first three quarters, eight points short of what the Hornets allow per game.

C+ COACHING: The first six minutes of the third quarter were really rough but they fought back in the fourth quarter.

This story was originally published November 23, 2015 at 9:50 PM with the headline "Kemba’s 39 lift Hornets."