National Basketball Association

O'Quinn, Knicks look to continue ascent vs. Kings

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 2:04 p.m. ET

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With an ailing Joakim Noah forced to the bench by a sprained ankle, the New York Knicks have turned to reserve center Kyle O'Quinn to supplement their scoring and rebounding.

The Knicks (10-9) are 4-0 when O'Quinn is in the starting lineup. New York will look to improve its 9-3 record at Madison Square Garden on Sunday when it hosts the Sacramento Kings.

Shooting guard Courtney Lee (ankle) sat out Friday and is day-to-day for New York, which has not been two games over .500 since Nov. 21 last season.

O'Quinn had his first double-double of the season in the Knicks' 118-114 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday. He scored 20 points and pulled in 13 rebounds.

After the game, Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek was understandably non-committal about Noah returning to the starting spot when he is healthy.

"We'll see when that happens," Hornacek said. "Right now we're just happy. We just won a game."

O'Quinn is taking his new role in stride.

"It doesn't matter to me," he said. "Whatever coach decides to do, I'll roll with it. Starting, coming off the bench - as long as I'm in the mix. Whatever he decides. What am I going to argue with him?

"Joakim didn't go nowhere," O'Quinn said. "He's still sitting next to me, talking to me every timeout, like a coach. Much appreciated."

Carmelo Anthony took a season-high 10 3-pointers, making five in the back end of the home-and-home series with Minnesota. He scored 29 points - the ninth time this season he's collected 20 or more points.

Sacramento (7-12) is 3-6 over its last nine games, but only one of those losses was by double figures - including a 97-92 decision at Boston on Friday.

"We've got to look ourselves in the mirror and hold ourselves accountable," Kings center DeMarcus Cousins told the Sacramento Bee. "If you know you're not giving 100 percent at the beginning of the game, you're the issue - myself and everybody else in this room included. So it's on us."

Arron Afflalo returns to the Garden as the Kings' starting shooting guard. He spent last season in the same role with the Knicks. He's averaging 8.6 points per game.

The Kings are Afflalo's sixth team. He was drafted by Detroit in 2007 and spent two seasons there before being traded to the Denver Nuggets. Four years later, he was traded to the Orlando Magic in the Andrew Bynum-Dwight Howard deal. He averaged a career-high 18.2 points per game in 2014 with the Magic before being traded back to the Nuggets.

The UCLA product also played for Portland before signing with the Knicks last offseason. He out of his contract and signed with the Kings over the summer.

"I knew we kind of had a new team coming," Afflalo told Basketball Insiders. "I was a fan of (Kings coach Dave) Joerger and the way he coached in Memphis. Just happy to be a little bit closer to home, and Sacramento was one of the early teams that reached out, and they won. It just felt like a good fit at the time."

The Kings swept the two-game series last season by a combined 10 points.