The Sacramento Kings moved to 6-3 off the strength of their fifth straight win, blowing out the Hawks in Atlanta.
It was an all-around domination by the Sacramento Kings in the second half that led to a 146-115 win over the Atlanta Hawks. The Sacramento Kings took a 35-29 at the end of the first quarter and wouldn’t look back, closing the first half up 69-64 (nice).
De’Aaron Fox had 10 assists at the end of the half, but only seven points in what would become a career-high night of scoring for him. Three other Kings, Nemanja Bjelica, Buddy Hield, and Marvin Bagley III, finished the first-half with double-digit points.
The second half, however, is where the Kings really took control. Using a 13-2 run early in the third, Sacramento pushed their lead to 91-75 before going up 20 on a reeling Hawks team.
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Sacramento ended the quarter up 115-87, thanks to Fox’s 21 third-quarter points. Hield also added 12 points in the quarter, but it was a career-night from Fox that stole the show.
The Kings took their starters out midway through the fourth, cementing an incredible 58 point, 15 rebound and 21 assist-effort from Sacramento’s starting backcourt of Hield and Fox.
Nemanja Bjelica also made an impact, despite having his double-double streak snapped as he put up 19 points, two rebounds, three assists, three steals, and two blocks. Marvin Bagley III played solid as well, chipping in 18 points and grabbing five boards in 24 minutes.
Despite a plethora of good and great performances, three players stood out the most, starting with De’Aaron Fox.
De’Aaron Fox played an incredible game, setting multiple career-highs in the process.
There goes that man, De’Aaron! Fox was electric tonight, notching his first career triple-double with 31 points, 10 rebounds and 15 assists on 9-13 shooting from the field (3-4 3PT, 10-11 FT).
In addition to the triple-double, Fox set a career-high in: points, assists, and free throws made while tying a career-high in defensive rebounds. Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, according to Bleacher Report De’Aaron Fox is the youngest player in NBA history to score at least 30 points while grabbing at least 10 rebounds and 15 assists.
Fox is having a phenomenal season and is an early candidate for Most Improved Player. Over the Kings five-game win streak, Fox is averaging 24.6 points, 6.8 rebounds and 11 assists on .587 percent shooting from the field. If he keeps this up over the course of the season, he could very well earn a spot on the Western Conference All-Star team.
Buddy Hield was a team-high +40 in tonight’s game. If that doesn’t tell you how good of a game he had, I don’t know what to tell you.
Buddy Hield has scored at least 22 points in each of the Kings last five games and is averaging 18.9 points per game on the season. He added in 27 points tonight, doing a bit of everything as he also grabbed five rebounds, six assists and two steals on 10-17 shooting.
In a game the Kings won by 31, Hield was a +40 and led the team in that category, beating the +34 mark posted by Fox. He was also 5-7 from three-point land tonight, adding onto his already impressive .413 3PT% on the season.
If Fox and Hield are able to play like this in even half of their games, the Sacramento Kings could be primed to get their first season over .500 since the 2005-06 season. You have to imagine with every stellar performance Hield turns in that GM Vlade Divac is dying of laughter knowing he may very well have come out on top in the DeMarcus Cousins trade.
MB3 turned in a solid outing, going for 18 points and five rebounds off the bench.
The last standout player could have gone to Nemanja Bjelica, but Bagley gets the nod here because of how important performances like this mean for Sacramento’s future.
Bagley shot 70 percent from the floor (4-4 FT) and added a steal to his 18 points and five rebounds in 24 minutes in reserve. Bagley is doing his best to prove he’s worth of the 2018 draft’s no. 2 overall pick and has put together averages of 13 points and 6.9 rebounds (nice) on .554 percent shooting over his first nine career games.
Speaking of draft status though, Bagley may very well be exactly what Sacramento needed. With Fox and Hield in the backcourt, had Sacramento drafted somebody like Luka Doncic, it’s very possible Fox and Hield wouldn’t be having the seasons they were without the ball in their hands as much.
Regarding Bagley though, it’ll be important to see if his role starts to get bigger going forward if Bjelica starts to slip at all. Both Bagley and Bjelica played the same amount of minutes and though that could be due to the situation, it could also mean Bagley is close to overtaking Belly for the starting PF spot.
Next Up: Sacramento Kings (6-3) vs. Milwaukee Bucks (7-0)