The Sacramento Kings fired coach Mike Brown less than halfway through his third season with the team mired in a five-game losing streak.

Assistant Doug Christie will take over as interim coach.

Brown, the former Lakers head coach, won NBA Coach of the Year in his first season in 2022-23, when he helped Sacramento end the longest playoff drought in NBA history at 16 seasons.

But Sacramento lost in the play-in tournament last year and was off to a 13-18 start this season, leading to the move to fire Brown about six months after he agreed to a contract extension through the 2026-27 season.

The Kings have lost an NBA-worst nine games this season after leading in the fourth quarter with the worst one coming in Brown’s final game as coach Thursday night against Detroit.

Sacramento led by 10 with less than three minutes to play only to collapse down the stretch in a 114-113 loss.

Brown had a 107-88 record in two-plus seasons in Sacramento with a winning record in both of his full seasons.

He previously had two stints as coach in Cleveland and one-plus season as Lakers coach. He has a 455-304 record and has made the playoffs in seven of his nine full seasons.

CELTICS 142, PACERS 105: Jaylen Brown scored a season-high 44 points, including six 3-pointers, and Boston snapped a two-game skid with a home rout over Indiana.

Jayson Tatum had 22 points and 13 rebounds for Boston, which hit 23 3s. Payton Pritchard fini shed with 18 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds.

KNICKS 108, MAGIC 85: Jalen Brunson had 26 points and nine assists, Josh Hart added 23 points and 13 rebounds and visiting New York extended its winning streak to six games with a win over Orlando.

Karl-Anthony Towns had 16 points and eight rebounds for the Knicks.

TIMBERWOLVES 113, ROCKETS 112: Anthony Edwards made a step-back 3-pointer with 23 seconds left to cap a furious rally and lift Minnesota at Houston.

The Rockets were up by by 12 with about three minutes left before a 10-0 run by the Timberwolves.

Julius Randle had 27 points and Edwards added 24 for the Timberwolves.

Sengun had 38 points with 12 rebounds to lead the Rockets, who had a four-game winning streak snapped.

CAVALIERS 149, NUGGETS 135: Donovan Mitchell scored 33 points, Evan Mobley had 26 points and NBA-leading Cleveland beat host Denver for its sixth straight win.

Nikola Jokic had 27 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists for his league-leading 12th triple-double of the season, and Jamal Murray also had 27 with 10 assists for Denver, which has dropped two in a row.