DE’AARON FOX, DE’AARON FOX, DE’AARON FOX!

THE SOUTH BEACH CURSE IS FINALLY OVER THANKS TO DE’AARON FOX!

The last time the Sacramento Kings defeated the Miami Heat in Miami happened in 2001, but that streak is no more. The Kings trailed by double digits in the fourth quarter and all hope seemed to have vanished, until the Kings went on another late run similar to the one against Orlando and won the game with a score of 89-88.

Bogdan Bogdanovic attempted a tough off-balanced shot to try to win the game but as it missed, Fox came flying in with a putback dunk to take the lead. Josh Richardson tried to draw a foul to win it for Miami, but the veteran defender Garrett Temple was not going to be fooled with that one.

Best Performers

Buddy Hield: Coming off the bench has been a blessing for second year guard Buddy Hield. During this two game winning streak, Hield scored 13 points off the bench against Orlando and today, he scored 24. He was the igniter for the Kings in that late comeback and even performed a poster dunk. He shot 10/15 (4/7 from deep) along with one assist and five rebounds in 28 minutes. He was the only bench player to score in double figures. #RisingStar

De’Aaron Fox: Albeit Fox struggled with 6/15 shooting, he is becoming the player we all want right in front of our eyes. A drive to the rim for two, followed by a steal (Hield poster occurred after his missed layup) and then the putback dunk marks for one of the best sequence of plays in Kings history. He scored 14 points along with four assists and three rebounds in 29 minutes. #ShouldBeARisingStar

Bogdan Bogdanovic: Bogdan had a bad game against Orlando, but bounced back for a solid performance today. He scored 11 points on 5/10 shooting (one three) to go along with three assists, three rebounds and one block in 35 minutes. Another #RisingStar

Notable Stats

Zach Randolph didn’t have the best game in my eyes but he still had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds in 28 minutes.

Justin Jackson looked really good today, scoring six of his eight points in the first quarter on 4/5 shooting and also had three rebounds in only 19 minutes. The minutes are frustrating as we saw a much more aggressive and confident Jackson, but at least the Kings came away with the win.

Willie Cauley-Stein had nine points, three assists, four rebounds, two steals and two blocks in 31 minutes.

After having a 34 point performance two days ago, Garrett Temple only scored five points on 1/7 shooting in only 18 minutes.

Sacramento shot 47% from the floor, 42% from three. They struggled from the line with 8/14 being the stat line. The Kings were out-rebounded 46-33, out-assisted 19-17, out-stolen 8-3, but had more blocks and were tied with turnovers with 13 each. The Kings also had more fouls with the stat line being 21 to Miami’s 19. The Kings also played some fantastic defense for much of the game, holding the Heat to just 37.8% from the field, the third lowest percentage for a Kings opponent this season. For the season, the Kings are 6-1 when holding teams to below 41.5% from the field (it just doesn’t happen very often).

Quick Takeaways

Hassan Whiteside was held to a terrible game except the rebounds (13). His first points came at 2:22 in the second quarter.

Wayne Ellington and Goran Dragic were doing their best to kill off the Kings as they each scored over 20 points, but it wasn’t enough. #NotRisingStars

Sacramento had an eight point lead in the third but ended the quarter trailing 72-71. They came back anyways B)

Two game winning streak!

Did anyone else lose their voice at the end? I can’t be the only one!