Sacramento rested veterans Zach Randolph and George Hill, leaving Fox to lead a fledgling group. The Wizards wasted no time in bullying the young Kings. Washington opened the game on a 13-0 run, with Wall hitting a trio of three-pointers. By the end of the first half, the Wizards led 63-32 — matching the franchise’s largest halftime lead, a mark set March 5, 1975, when team owned a 72-41 advantage over the Hawks, according to Elias Sports.

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Mike Scott enjoyed his best game as a Wizard. During one stretch in the second quarter, Scott scored 11 straight points and he finished with 13 on 6-of-9 shooting. Bradley Beal, who dodged a suspension for his Friday night dust-up with Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green, played 29 minutes and scored 15 points. Otto Porter Jr. finished with 16 points after another strong shooting game, drilling 3 of 5 from the arc and teasing Kings’ fans of what could have been.

Back in July, after the Kings had already dumped all-star DeMarcus Cousins, they were in the market for a new face of their franchise. The idea was to find him in free agency, and the team targeted Porter: the often quiet third cog playing in the shadows of Wall and Beal. The Kings’ front-office contingent flew to Washington to meet with Porter and his representatives, offering praise and most importantly, a max contract.

“They obviously wanted me. They’re a young team,” Porter said ahead before Sunday’s game. “They feel like I was a key piece to what they want to rebuild and what they’re trying to do and they were actually the first team that I talked to.”

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For the record, the Brooklyn Nets were the first team to call at midnight on July 1 but you can forgive Porter for forgetting the minute details. It’s hard to keep up when you’re a player in demand. Porter was a restricted free agent and Washington had matching rights. Since the team had prepared itself for the scenario of keeping Porter for a contract worth four years and $106 million, the flirtation with the Kings — the first team to sign him to an offer sheet, followed by the Nets — ended as a footnote from free agency.

As Porter shared the story from that July courtship, he wore a white and red practice jersey and that chill expression that has defined him through four-plus seasons with the Wizards. Unburdened by the weight of the zeros on his contract, Porter has made another leap in his career maturation.

“I don’t really follow what people say on Twitter or social media. I’m going to stay true to who I am and to my team and that’s where all my focus is,” Porter said. “I don’t really care what anybody has to say. My teammates and my coaches do a great job of letting me go out there to play my game and it shows on the court.”

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Through six games, Porter has not shot under 45 percent from the field and has played as the only starter to have produced all positive plus/minus numbers, which means the Wizards have outscored opponents whenever he’s on the floor.

On Friday night, Porter provided the best glimpse of his arrival as a go-to scorer. In the wake of Beal’s ejection against the Golden State Warriors, Porter canned a career-best seven three-pointers and scored 29 points.

“For him to come out and be aggressive and compete against one of the best players in the league, he didn’t back down,” Wall said about Porter following the Wizards’ 120-117 loss to Golden State. “You could tell he improved his game and he kept us in the game a lot and made some big plays for us.”

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Porter is averaging 18.7 points, giving the Wizards a true big three of scoring options.

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Beal described Porter as “carrying the team” after his 20-point first-half performance in the second game of the season. Wall called it “encouraging” to see Porter hitting shots at the rate he did on Friday. In every sense, Porter has proved his worth. However, the Wizards — judging by comments made by team owner Ted Leonsis at a July news conference to announce the max contract — wanted to temper the expected criticism Porter might receive if he does not play up to being the highest paid player on roster this season.

“We don’t want Otto to have more on his shoulders, nor any of our players, [now] that they’re a max player,” Leonsis said back then.

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Yet, Porter has taken these words to heart while still finding room behind Wall and Beal to grow and develop into having a larger presence on the team. His confidence — off the charts and hard to miss, especially during critical times of the Wizards’ Western Conference road trip.

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When the Wizards started slowly and fell behind 6-0 to the Los Angeles Lakers, Porter drilled a pullup jumper then backpedaled on defense clapping his hands and shouting for teammates to pick it up on defense. Then on Friday as the Warriors opened the fourth quarter on a 15-4 run endangering the Wizards’ lead, Porter chased down a tap-back offensive rebound by Marcin Gortat. Although the hustle play gave Washington a new shot clock, and Wall waited at the top of the key with his hands open to receive the ball, Porter instead took the high screen set by Gortat and drilled the midrange jumper.

Before this season, Coach Scott Brooks made a point to Porter. Not about living up to the contract, but recognizing in his fifth year that this team belongs to him, too.

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“The only thing I’ve told him, you have to put more ownership in the group,” Brooks said. “You’re a big part of the team and what I mean by that, we need your voice. Otto’s by nature a quiet person. Very respectful, great teammate and he’s a dream to coach. But I’d like for him to be more vocal on the court and more vocal in the huddles and I think he has been that, but he still needs to get a little better.

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“I never talk about the players’ contracts,” Brooks said. “Everybody gets paid very handsomely. No matter what they just got to go out there and play and keep playing for their team and improving year by year.”

Sacramento, as well as Brooklyn, recognized Porter for his potential to be an impactful player. The Wizards believed in it, too. And this season, Porter is showing why he was highly sought after over the summer.

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“Each game is different, I try to figure out how to impact the game: whether offensively scoring, of defensively getting tips, steals, rebounds, saving the loose ball,” Porter said. “Simple stuff like that that’s going to get us over the hump.”