CHICAGO — Sacramento Kings guard Malik Monk wasn’t surprised. Kings head coach Mike Brown knew it was going in, too. When All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox elevated over Ayo Dosunmu for a potential game-winning 3-pointer Wednesday night, Chicago Bulls fans inside the United Center could be heard letting out an exasperated “No!,” likely because they’ve seen this movie before.
With four seconds left and the game tied at 114 apiece, Fox drained a 3-pointer to lift Sacramento to its 41st win of the season, and secured the Kings a .500 or better record for the first time since 2006.
The win took a comeback effort after being down by 16 points in the first half, but the late-game heroics by Fox — which also included a mid-range jumper that looked like it would’ve iced the game for the Kings — were the highlight of the evening. When the Bulls knotted up the score in the closing seconds with some clutch moments of their own, Sacramento needed to call upon its clutch King once more, and he delivered.
Monk, who had a great view of Fox’s 3-pointer as he stood in the corner on the floor patiently waiting to see what his former University of Kentucky teammate would do, wasn’t surprised in the slightest by Fox’s latest clutch moment.
“I’m gonna keep saying it man, I’m not surprised,” Monk quipped after the game. “I’ve been with him for a long time, I know what he’s going to do. I got the most confidence in him. Just Fox being Fox.”
“Just Fox being Fox,” a common refrain among Kings players and coaches who have had a front row seat to Fox’s clutch performances all season long. Fox currently leads the NBA in total clutch points this season, which accounts for points scored in the last five minutes of the game when the margin is within five points. But the fact that Fox leads that category isn’t the surprising part, it’s how far apart he is from every other person behind him in that stat. Fox has scored 180 clutch-time points this season, the next closest competitors are DeMar DeRozan and Jimmy Butler with 138 each. According to our CBS Sports…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/kings-deaaron-fox-proves-why-he-should-run-away-with-nbas-new-clutch-player-of-the-year-award/
Author : Jasmyn Wimbish
Publish date : 2023-03-16 18:43:57
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