Sacramento Kings Win Summer League Title

LAS VEGAS: Ray McCallum scored 29 points as the Sacramento Kings came back from an eight-point deficit in the final minutes to beat the Houston Rockets 77-68 Monday in the NBA Summer League championship game.

The Kings went 6-1 at Las Vegas, and McCallum more than saved his best for last. He scored a total of 55 points in his first six games in the tournament, then connected on 9 of 15 shots from the floor in the title game. "It means a lot,'' said McCallum, as he held the tournament Most Valuable Player trophy. "I've been trying to put in a lot of hard work this summer.''

Ra'shad Jones scored 12 points and Nik Stauskas added 10 for Sacramento, which closed the game on a 27-10 run. "This is a great way to start off an NBA career,'' Stauskas said. Nick Johnson scored 17 for the Rockets, who got 16 from Donatas Motiejunas and 15 from Isaiah Canaan.

McCallum _ who appeared in 45 games for the Kings last season and made 10 starts late in the year, with three games of 22 points or better in the season's final weeks _ had just one point in the first quarter, and the Kings trailed 17-8 early. But once he got rolling, the Kings followed suit.

McCallum scored nine in the second, 10 more in the third and nine more in the fourth _ including a beat-the-shot-clock 3-pointer with about a minute left to cap an 11-0 run that put the Kings in control for good.

"Guys were laying it on the line,'' McCallum said. "But it's a championship game. You've got to bring your 'A' game. We just had to find a way to push through toward the end and as a collective group we found a way to get it done.''

AP