Buddy Hield was moved to the bench in favor of Bogdan Bogdanovic and Sacramento was able to snap their 6-game losing skid in Chicago.
The Sacramento Kings went into Chicago for the fourth game of their five-game road trip and came out with a victory — something they could not say throughout the last six games. Most people will point to Buddy Hield moving into a bench role and his performance as the difference in this one, but that should not overshadow the stellar play of Harry Giles.
Sacramento got off to a hot start, which brought their lead to ten less than five minutes in to the game. Dewayne Dedmon was phenomenal, (I really was hoping to be able to write on many occasions this season) mainly in the first quarter of play. He had two blocks by the time that the first buzzer rang signifying the end of the first period. But when Giles replaced Dedmon on the floor, the Kings’ style changed.
Giles And Hield Impress
Giles had four assists in six minutes, and a ferocious block that will undoubtedly be making his career highlight reel. The ball was moving left and right constantly with Giles and Hield sharing the floor along with the rest of the bench, and the entire offense was successfully centered around Giles. He would end the game with a mere two points, six assists, and two rebounds, but his impact goes far beyond the box score in this one.
Meanwhile, for the man that the spotlight was on headed into this one, Buddy Hield, was knocking down his shots and not doing too much with the ball in his hands. His quick decision making and off-ball movement led the way to a team-high 21 points on 7/12 shooting along with 5/9 from three in his second-lowest minute output of the season (23). He looked good, more so it just looked like an average night that we would have expected to see from Buddy heading into this season. But given how terrible his first half has been, that was nice to see.
Solid Nights From Fox and Barnes
But let’s just be honest with ourselves. The Chicago Bulls are not good at basketball, especially without Lauri Markannen and their best defender, Wendell Carter Jr. Luke Kornet and Cristiano Felicio are not protecting the rim from anyone or anything, and the top two drivers on the Kings in De’Aaron Fox and Harrison Barnes capitalized on that weakness.
Barnes and Fox finished with 18 of Sacramento’s 32 restricted area attempts and Fox played well when he wasn’t fouling. He finished with a stat line of 18 points, 7 assists, and 8 rebounds. Barnes would finish the night with 19 points in the box score.
Final Thoughts
There were moments of concern when Sacramento would settle for outside jumpers too frequently and long rebounds led to the Bulls getting into transition, where they are the most comfortable. But, the Kings pulled it out while keeping most fan’s heart rates at a healthy level.
Nothing mindblowing positive to be honest, (since it is hard to be enthusiastic about Giles considering he is destined to walk after Sacramento declined his 4th-year team option) but we all needed a win from this Sacramento Kings’ team. I know I did, Kings’ Twitter sure did, and the players did for their own morale. And it was a comfortable win down the stretch, something that can only be said a handful of times this season.
Let’s hope that they can ride the momentum into Minnesota where they will take on a team whose season has been just as disappointing as their own in the Timberwolves (15-30) on Monday night at 5 P.M. PST.