In a matchup between two of the league’s best young point guards on Wednesday evening, De’Aaron Fox came out ahead of Trae Young, both in individual performance and team success, as the Sacramento Kings escaped a late charge by the Atlanta Hawks behind De’Aaron’s 37 points. Young was by no means a slouch himself, as he poured in 29 points and 9 assists, and Clint Capela was also huge for the Hawks, recording 25 points and 17 rebounds, but outside of a few Atlanta runs, the Kings felt in control for the majority of the game.
The start of the night was a bit odd, as veteran guard Cory Joseph was out of the picture for all of warmups and player introductions, and he was greeted and congratulated by teammates when he joined the bench, but he also played over 21 minutes on the night, seemingly quelling any trade rumors. Of course, immediately after the game, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported that CoJo had in fact been traded to the Detroit Pistons for Delon Wright.
Aside from the big news of Joseph’s departure, the Kings enjoyed an interesting night from their three-guard rotation. Buddy Hield started off incredibly hot on the night, scoring 11 points on 3/6 from deep in the first quarter, but he fell apart over the next three periods, adding just three points on 10 attempts, including an air-balled mid-range jumper with 8.7 seconds remaining and the Kings up by just two. Tyrese Haliburton, on the other hand, started off a bit slow in his shooting, but caught fire late, as he’s prone to do. With just under five minutes left in the game, and with the contest tied at 94 points apiece, Sacramento’s star rookie drew a foul at the three-point line, knocked down the shot, and knocked down the free throw, granting the Kings a four-point lead. On the night, Haliburton filled up the stat sheet, as usual, putting in 17 points, 5 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block in 36 minutes.
After dropping 10 of 13 games, the Kings have now won 4 of 5, including a 4-1 record with their new small-ball starting lineup. They’ll take on the Golden State Warriors on Thursday evening to try and push a little closer to the elusive 10th seed in the Western Conference.
Kings seem better without Bagley ! Also, Fox a big time scorer when Tyrese handles most playmaking ! Fun game to watch as Hawks are a solid team since Nate took over and Bogi got healthy !
Our starting lineup actually plays decent defense. Bagley has to go
Say what you want but an impressive win against a very hot Atlanta team. Tomorrow should be a very interesting day on and off the court. A win over the Warriors tomorrow and the Kings are back in the race for a play in spot. I expect San Antonio to lose Derozan and with Curry out the Kings can gain ground on two teams.
Ah crap, you’re speculating how a win in a winnable game affects our standings.
Whenever I do that we end up losing (see the Magic game earlier this season and the Knicks game at home last season that would have put us at .500)
I wish you better luck, but this smells like typical KANGZ.
Tonight was a good night.
can we sign a petition to never see the Metu/Whiteside frontcourt duo again?
Metu: seven points in eight minutes
Whiteside: eight points and twelve boards in eighteen minutes
I’m not sure what it is that you expect from two of the lowest-paid bench players that we have, but objectively, they each had a good game.
Booooo. Let’s hope there’s another diamond in the rough at the 12th pick….
I don’t mind a win if it shows our young guys improving and taking over the game. Just an absolute great game by Fox, he showed so many things this game: the speed, but also a slow game and the ability to make adjustments based on how defenses play him. I don’t have time to clip it, but he had a really nice possession in the fourth quarter in which he directed Holmes how to set the pick, he faked towards it, turned back to his left and drew the foul from Hunter who was just a hair out of possession. Also: Hunter is the real deal.
Buddy is always the same crap…knocks down some shots but when things get tight, and when it matters most, he start to throw the ball to the opponents, out of bounds, air balls, contested jumpers….and the sad part is: we fans will have to live with this for 2,3 more years..
Buddy makes me sad. He’s an amateur with some shooting.
This seemed like a prove it game for Buddy. And he proved it. We shoulda kept Bogi.
Badge Legend