Kings hold off Pelicans after Raynaud’s late surge seals it

The Pelicans build the kind of first-half cushion that usually travels all night — and Sacramento still finds a way to reel them in. New Orleans leads by as many as 17, controls the opening quarter, and keeps the Kings under pressure for long stretches. But in the final minutes, the home side keeps making the next play, and Maxime Raynaud’s late driving layup becomes the bucket that puts Sacramento in front for good in a 117-113 escape.

The tone is set early when New Orleans explodes out of the gate. The Pelicans turn a 10-9 edge into a 10-21 run with Jeremiah Fears doing damage as a shot-maker and creator, capped by a 28-foot running pull-up three for his sixth point of the game. Sacramento answers with a 9-0 push of its own — DeMar DeRozan knocks down a 10-foot pullup jumper, and the Kings start to chip away at the deficit — but every time the crowd thinks the tide is turning, New Orleans has another answer. By halftime, the Pelicans still hold a 66-55 edge, fueled by ball movement, rim pressure, and a Kings defense that can’t quite contain the paint.

Sacramento’s fight really shows after the break. The Kings don’t flip the game all at once; they grind it back possession by possession. Nique Clifford keeps attacking, Saddiq Bey keeps finding daylight off the bounce, and Raynaud starts to emerge as the player New Orleans can’t keep out of the lane. The Pelicans’ lead shrinks from 17 to single digits, but they still look poised to survive until the final four minutes. Then the game tightens into a full-on possession battle. New Orleans briefly nudges ahead late, but Sacramento stays close enough for one clean run to decide it.

That turning point arrives with 44.2 seconds left. Raynaud drives for a layup to put Sacramento up 114-111, and suddenly the Kings are playing downhill while the Pelicans are forced into desperation mode. The sequence after that is all about the margins: Dereck Carter gets a block at 37 seconds, Saddiq Bey answers with a finger roll at 24.6 to make it a one-point game, and Dylan Cardwell turns the last minute into a defensive stand at the rim. Cardwell’s back-to-back blocks in the final 11 seconds are the exclamation points on a game Sacramento wins with toughness and timing, not just shot-making.

Raynaud finishes with 28 points, nine rebounds, and four assists on 79% shooting, a near-perfect offensive night in only 29 minutes. Fears matches him with 28 points, eight rebounds, and six assists, and Clifford adds 23 points and six assists as Sacramento gets multiple creators in the mix. For New Orleans, Zion Williamson’s 13-point night includes the clutch driving layup at 2:08 that briefly keeps the Pelicans afloat, while Saddiq Bey’s 20 points and Micah Peavy’s four steals help keep the pressure on. But the difference is in the closing stretch: Sacramento gets the cleaner looks, the stops at the rim, and the final word.

This one matters because it keeps Sacramento sharp in a game it had to earn the hard way. The Kings show they can erase a double-digit hole without panicking, and that’s a good sign for a team trying to tighten its late-game execution. New Orleans will regret letting a 17-point advantage slip, but the Pelicans also showed enough defensive disruption to make this one winnable until the final horn. If these teams meet again, the last five minutes won’t be comfortable for either side.