Kings make history in blowout win. De’Aaron Fox’s subtle strength helped make it happen
The Kings built a 27-point lead over the Charlotte Hornets in the first half thanks to hot shooting from 3 and a big night from big man Richaun Holmes. But things started to teeter early in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s blowout win at Golden 1 Center.
The offense sputtered with point guard De’Aaron Fox on the bench, beginning the final frame 1-of-6 from the floor before Fox and Harrison Barnes were put back in.
To that point, it was a relatively quiet game from Fox. He entered the fourth quarter just a plus-5 in his 22 minutes (Maurice Harkless led Sacramento at plus-23 going into the quarter). Fox’s minutes were down because had to sit the bench after picking up a third foul in the second quarter.
His teammates carried the water with the most prolific 3-point shooting night in team history. The Kings made 22 of 44 and outscored Charlotte 66-33 from behind the arc in a 140-110 victory.
Buddy Hield hit eight 3s (the crowd was chanting “Bu-ddy-Bu-ckets” during the final minutes). Rookie Davion Mitchell hit his first four tries from deep. Sacramento had seven players in double figures, including Fox, for the third straight game.
Holmes had his first career 20-20 game, finishing with 23 points and 20 rebounds. It might have been the best game of his career.
To that end, the first three quarters looked like a game in favor of the longterm argument against Fox sticking in Sacramento.
It’s perhaps the biggest questions facing the Kings this season: Is Fox going to last on a guard-heavy roster that invested in point guards during the last two drafts, adding Tyreese Haliburton and Mitchell? Or will he be traded for wings to balance out the roster?
The Kings were blowing out a good Charlotte team that figures to be in the playoff hunt in the competitive Eastern Conference with Fox mostly lurking in the shadows of big nights from his teammates. And with Fox’s scoring down to 17.9 points per game and shooting down significantly through a small sample early in the season, after averaging 25.2 during a career year last season, how his campaign goes could decide his future with the team.
But the quick-footed point guard was needed to steady the ship when he returned to the game in the fourth quarter. It appeared the Hornets had a chance to change the blowout into something more interesting. They made a run while the Kings fumbled.
After the Hornets outscored Sacramento 6-2 to start the fourth, Fox entered and retook control of the tempo. His first two touches resulted in 3s made for Mitchell and Hield, thanks to his ability to break down the defense with his quickness and ability to find his open shooters. The Kings were moving the ball, and a lot of it was spurred by Fox’s ability to initiate.
“He’s a one-man fast break,” Hornets coach James Borrego said pregame. “He puts pressure on your defense at will. He doesn’t need a screen, he doesn’t need an offense, he just needs space and the ball in his hands to create. That’s what makes him elite to me. He’s special that way.”
It wasn’t the most important sequence of the game, or perhaps the biggest development. This was Holmes’ night paired with all the shooting. The Kings’ lead was cut to 15, but Fox spearheaded an effort that kept the blowout going. Sacramento outscored Charlotte 34-21 in the final frame after that 1-of-6 start from the floor.
The sequence led to Walton signaling Fox’s importance to the big picture after the game as the Kings try to end their 15-year playoff drought.
“We know what De’Aaron’s capable of,” Walton said. “And we don’t need him to carry the load as much like we did in the previous years. We want it to be more of how it was tonight. We also know he’s somebody that can calm the waters when things start to get rough like he’s playing like he has the last couple nights. He did a great job of stopping that run you were talking about and kind of getting us back in control of the game.”
It lines up with what Walton said before the game when asked about Fox’s uneven start to the season. Fox had been up and down, with a peak coming in Sacramento’s previous game against the New Orleans Pelicans, when he made a season-best 57 percent of his shots with 19 points. He set a season high in plus-minus with a plus-10 finish.
“We need De’Aaron to be aggressive,” Walton said before Friday’s contest. “Whether that’s scoring, shooting, getting to the foul line, we’re at our best when he’s playing that way. So we’re going to continue to push that.”
Fox surpassed that plus-minus during the win over Charlotte. After entering the final quarter plus-5, he was plus-17 with over two minutes left when both teams started emptying their bench. He finished with 21 points, nine assists and three rebounds, and plus-21, more than doubling his season high from Wednesday.
Fox proved to be part of the reason the Kings kept their foot on the Hornets’ throats throughout the game, rather than allow them back in, which seemed possible given the way the fourth quarter began.
“He’s so fast and such a good player that everyone wants to sink in to him,” Mitchell said. “And then he passes out to open teammates and we knock down (shots). It’s really hard to guard De’Aaron in the open floor, so if you watch the film, you just see everyone packed in (the paint) and he does a really good job of getting us open shots and getting the shots we need to win the game.”
The win pushed the Kings to 5-4, seventh in the Western Conference, before their back-to-back with home games against Indiana on Sunday and Phoenix on Monday.
And as Walton said, Fox could be the calming influence the Kings need when Holmes isn’t having a 20-20 game or the team isn’t having its best 3-point shooting night in franchise history.
