De'Aaron Fox, Tyrese Haliburton, and Harrison Barnes led the Kings to yet another thrilling fourth quarter comeback, beating the Boston Celtics 116-111.
The Boston Celtics came into tonight's matchup in Sacramento with a pretty lengthy injury report and some tired legs on the second night of a back-to-back. No Kemba Walker. No Marcus Smart. No Payton Pritchard.
The Kings, on the other hand, have played a nice week+ of basketball beating up on the Eastern Conference. Sacramento had won 4 of their last 5 games heading into a fortunate opportunity to steal a win vs. a much better, but currently injured and potentially tired Celtics team. It's a scenario the Kings couldn't take advantage of versus the Heat on Saturday, but if Sacramento is going to close the playoff gap in the west, they need to win more of these games.
It was a close throughout, it was fun down the stretch, but De'Aaron Fox was just too much for the Celtics to handle tonight. Let's get into it.
1st Quarter
Marvin Bagley carried the Kings through the early stages of the 1st quarter, scoring a quick 7 points in 8 minutes. Outside of Bagley, though, the Kings didn't have a lot going for them here offensively. Hield shot 2-7, Barnes shot 1-5, Holmes shot 1-3, and Fox ended the quarter 0-1. It was an ugly open.
The good news is that the Kings were able to hold the Celtics to just 26 points despite getting bullied by Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Tristan Thompson in the paint. The Celtics had a massive points in the paint, free throw, and rebounding advantage early, but the Kings kept the game tight enough despite their poor shooting. 26-22 Celtics after one.
2nd Quarter
The Celtics jumped out to a quick 10-point lead to start the 2nd quarter thanks to a 14-point first half from Jayson Tatum, but the Kings were able to close the gap completely and take the lead for themselves once Sacramento's starters checked back in. Bench production remains a problem for this team. Outside of Tyrese Haliburton, there just isn't a lot of offensive talent there.
Fox and Barnes struggled mightily in the first quarter, but they returned to form quickly in the 2nd. Fox was dealing, registering 7 assists in the first half alone (his season average is 6.4 APG) and brought out that aggressiveness we love to see. Barnes put in his work attacking the rim, and a decent 5-point, 2-assist first half bench contribution from Tyrese Haliburton was enough to give the Kings the lead heading into halftime. Kings 52, Celtics 51.
3rd Quarter
The Kings' seemingly decades long 3rd quarter issues popped up again tonight. Sacramento got off to a very sluggish start with the Celtics running up a 23-11 3rd quarter scoring advantage by the 5:30 mark.
Sacramento really struggled to contain Tristan Thompson here. No disrespect to Thompson, he's a solid, valuable player, but you'd like to think one of Richaun Holmes or Hassan Whiteside could slow him down better than they did tonight. Thompson is a tough matchup for Bagley due to his size and strength, but the Kings have bigger options defensively and none of them really got the job done until the 4th quarter.
Fortunately for the Kings, 11 other NBA teams passed on Tyrese Haliburton. Fox found Hali on back-to-back threes that kickstarted the comeback, and Tyrese was a menace from that point on, culminating in a buzzer-beating putback to close out the quarter. Haliburton scored 10 points in the third alone, was disruptive as hell on defense, and was the clear-cut primary reason the Kings were only down 1 heading into the 4th. Celtics 82, Kings 81.
4th Quarter
The Kings opened up the 4th quarter featuring a lot of Hassan Whiteside. It was ugly, but not completely ineffective until it was. Luke Walton probably relied on the second unit for too many minutes here as the Celtics extended their lead to 5 with 6:39 left in the 4th, and De'Aaron Fox on the bench.
Fox returned after the timeout, and wouldn't you know it, the Kings started playing much better. It began with a pull-up three in transition for Fox, and ended with numerous tough drives to the rim and one final clutch mid-range bucket to close this one out. Fox was incredible down the stretch, and it was great to see him duel with another young star in Jayson Tatum and come out on top. Fox finished with 26 points and 11 assists on 9-17 shooting, but it was his 4th quarter showing where he performed like the best player on the court for either team that made him Sacramento's MVP tonight.
Kings win 116-111.
Final Thoughts
De'Aaron Fox has been on an absolute tear recently, and the 4th quarter of tonight's game vs. the Celtics was more of the same. If we are witnessing the beginning of another big Fox leap, he might just carry the Kings beyond our most optimistic expectations for this season. Sacramento is currently just 1 loss behind the Houston Rockets for the 10th seed play-in game at 10-11.
Tyrese's Lucky Hoodie
A funny thing happened on the way to the G1C...
As has become customary before Kings games this season, Tyrese Haliburton showed up to the game repping some merch he'd picked up from a local Sacramento business. Only this time, that local merchant was... Kings Herald Dot Com!!
.@tyhaliburton22 rockin' the Rese's Pieces hoodie 💧 pic.twitter.com/MItRORpLC2
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) February 4, 2021
.@tyhaliburton22 explains the Rese's Passes hoodie he wore to the game pic.twitter.com/Crpo8dt7op
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) February 4, 2021
https://twitter.com/thekingsherald/status/1357175228204425216
Haliburton rocked an awesome hoodie before delivering a career night against the Celtics https://t.co/MRkDs7oZ63 pic.twitter.com/mu9ZkaIPHF
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) February 4, 2021
Nothing but respect for OUR Rookie of the Year. pic.twitter.com/KfcUaLli7C
— The Kings Herald (@thekingsherald) February 4, 2021
FOX IS INSANE!!!!!
Fox has leveled up!
Took out the Green tonight!
Tatum did look a bit green at the end of the game!
The Steal.
the kings are 1 of 7 teams that are 5-1 in the last 6 games.
TYRESE, IF YOU’RE HERE ON THE KINGS HERALD READING THESE COMMENTS, PRESS THE THUMBS UP BUTTON ON MY COMMENT.
Shhh it’s a secret
Tyrese we love you
…downvote?
If you don’t love Tyrese, you don’t love Kings basketball!
OMG, he has multiple accounts!
also give me 300 dollars
Aren’t you getting that much based on your R.O.Y. bet?
$160 if he wins, but I also got Steph for MVP, Monty Williams for COY, and Christian Wood for MIP. I feel like I might win 2 out of 4 with the ol luck of the Portuguese as they say.
𤠅I have a thought, so stay with me. My entire existence believes he should legally change his name to “Rese’s Passes”. Might end up being a top 10 nickname of all time.
or
META WORLD RESE
Nice…STAMP IT
Best NBA parents
Much better than Luka’s dad!
I love her so much.
I think she’s worth it to re-sign Holmes.
but what did Bagleys dad say? ….Wait, I don’t want to know
Fox and Haliburton are so fun to watch. Cojo and Whiteside are not. That’s my analysis of this game.
Check that record when Whiteside plays significant minutes and hit me back
Correlation doesn’t equal causation
the fun to watch record?
Whiteside is an absolute bum out there on the court. Repeatedly fumbling passes, turning it over on simple outlet passes, and overall very minimal effort. His size is worth something but he hurts us more than he helps us when he’s playing. But oddly enough, based off his post game quotes he actually seems to know what it takes to win games in this league (which makes sense, he’s been on winning teams) and that’s worth something. I like Whiteside as a dude, not so much when he’s playing basketball.
he’s fun! It’s like a roller coaster ride when he’s out there.
“WHY DID I BUY A TICKET……TO DIE?!”
I’ve been calling it the Whiteside Experience. It’s a sluggish hilarious and entertaining form of basketball. Very unique.
Perfect synopsis of Whiteside.
sounds wrong to say it but he seems like a great locker room guy. All the videos, pranks on rooks, he’s like the class clown that keeps everyone laughing even through the rough stretches. But I get it. Watching the ball is in his hands or buddy’s, when it’s not a wide open shot, is like watching your dog grab your wallet and run. Drop it!
Its not pretty on offense for sure. He has obvious limitations and cannot play versus certain lineups……HOWEVER, his defense, shot blocking/altering and rebounding are exactly what this team needs.
When Whiteside plays more than 12 minutes the Kings are 7-2.
When he DNPs or plays less than 12 minutes the Kings are 3-9.
I prefer wins to beauty.
You can throw out all the numbers you want. This team plays 4 on 5 when he’s out there bc his effort takes himself out of half the plays.
7-2 when he plays decent minutes.
Argue all you want about how bad he is :/
They’re winning games in spite of him not because of him.
Ya you right 9 points 9 rebounds in 17 minutes of action.
Got the C’s into the penalty in the fourth almost single handed.
Forced into big minutes by bigs who like to foul. Holmes leads the league.
By all accounts solid vet for this locker room.
By VORP, By PER, By win share is statistically 5th or 6th on the squad for less than 3 million.
I don’t get the hate?
But hey it’s your opinion you can devalue it any way you please.
I don’t get the hate either, I think he does a good job as a back up big, he provides valuable minutes sets great screens and knows how to set them. I actually watched a play last night where he was the first one back on defense that saved a basket. He’s a heck of a good deal in my humble opinion
Forget the analytics it’s what you see with the eye
And crucially having Whiteside eat the backup C minutes prevents Bagley from having to play that role. Bagley gets absolutely roasted when he’s the only big on the floor (since moving him to C also moves Barnes to PF and Barnes doesn’t provide weakside rim protection or plus rebounding).
Hassan’s game isn’t pretty in a vacuum, but the rotation issue caused when he sits makes us the worst team in the league. We average -2.36 when he plays (ie. not great, but close enough to be competitive) vs -11.14 (worst in the league) when he is inactive.
That’s the difference between giving 15mpg as defensive anchor to a guy who was 1st in blocks and 3rd in rebounds in the entire NBA last season, instead of playing Bagley out of position.
Fox was great in the 4th quarter. Apart from a TO where Tatum poked it away from behind, he was nearly flawless.
it is been impressive to see.
And Haliburton sporting the TKH Rese hoodie!
https://twitter.com/thekingsherald/status/1357173630036103170?s=21
Incredible
NEXT CITY EDITION KINGS UNIFORMS SHOULD BE ORANGE.
Christ, these are hideous but take my upvote.
Really makes you glad to not be a suns fan.
Might actually be better than the current city jersey.
I think it’s time for the Sacramento Kings organization to do the right thing.
The non-existent secondary advertiser logo that is missing from the top left of our jersey needs to be Reese’s
PiecesPasses.Time for a (chicken) dance thread!
Wait! If that’s Lonzo, it should be a duck dance instead!
Who are the pigeons then?
haliBERTon doing the PIGEON
The L*k*rs for drafting him and the Pelicans for trading for him?
Duck duck Fox
You people need to consider the damage this does to an entire blameless species.
Gallo!
I saw a huge cock like that at some stop on the way to Yosemite.
A few of them. Never knew they got so big!
OMG THIS GIF IS SICK
Coach Walton deserves a lot of credit. This team isn’t where it is today with out Luke Walton.
This is bad
So’s your reading comprehension
Great comeback.
If you’re going to throw Walton out due to historically bad defensive performance, you have to note that they’ve also won these games with him as a head coach.
Whether that’s enough, that’s another matter.
Hali joined the No Foxing Around Club tonight.
Where’s the link to the store?
It’s in the drop down menu on the site
Kingsherald.com/store
tell all your friends… and enemies
Someone should tell the NBA Richaun wasn’t credited for a block here:
(he was only credited with 1 block, but that was in the first half)
Check out a close up of Richaun’s hand:
Last week that Ottis guy threw A LOT of stats and cold numbers at me to prove Fox is not better than last season…
I’m here waiting for some more of those great analysis by numbers and +/-, they so acurate!
That Otis guy does have a lot of clown takes
yeah Otis…
Last week. It’s almost like Fox has been a lot better the last 10 days or so. A week or so ago he WASN’T playing better than last season. He has been recently though. This version of Fox is significantly better than the version we saw the first 12 games. Context is sort of important.
You’re telling me things can change? For the better?
Hard to believe for sure!
To be fair to Otis, Fox is currently having the best few weeks of his basketball life. If Otis comes back and has a changed opinion based on new facts I totally respect that.
This kinda comment drives me crazy. While I don’t really agree with Otis’ take on De’Aaron Fox overall (and he’s not alone in his criticisms either), I also don’t see where anything he has said at any point is actually (or even a little) out of bounds. If we can’t have disagreement on valuation of players, why are we conversing with each other around here?
It’s fair to criticize a young player for not being what he wants and the franchise needs him to be at this point in time.
The art of conversation is dying, Nate.
We the people are just intent on shouting ourr truth/opinion and cancelling those we disagree with, and “hating” (on) them in the process.
I say “we” because I am as guilty of that as the next person. I really believe that the manner in which we communicate has slowly but surely altered over the last two decades (give or take).
This pretty much sums up why I don’t comment here that much anymore
I dunno Dutchman. I’m not sure it’s the art of conversation that’s dying. I still have polite disagreements with people in person when I choose to.
I think the bigger issue is the lack of real boundaries that some really struggle with. I’m not sure what created this, but it’s the biggest problem I see with all of this.
Oh, shut up, hater!