De’Aaron Fox Leads Kings To Third Straight Win
Dec 8, 2018, 12:00 AM | Updated: Jan 4, 2019, 11:37 am
(Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
by Franklin Cartoscelli – Sports 1140 KHTK
Tomorrow morning when we check our calendars, the Sacramento Kings will have 13 wins as they put away the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday night 129-110.
The last time Sacramento had 13 wins by December 8th was in 2004, a year in which they not only made the postseason, but won 50 games.
De’Aaron Fox paced the Kings offense with a monster performance, scoring 30 points on 12-of-16 shooting to go along with 12 assists and three steals. Fox, who missed his career high by one point, only had one turnover in another strong showing for the second year guard out of Kentucky.
C R A F T Y
O
X pic.twitter.com/8nARAoyVzI— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) December 8, 2018
Collecting his sixth double-double of the season, Fox is one of four players to have two or more games with 30+ points and 10+ assists this season.
The other three are Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday, and NBA MVP James Harden.
Buddy Hield had his second consecutive game with 20+ points, scoring 25 on 9-of-17 from the field, including 5-of-8 from three point land.
Sacramento improved to 4-1 on the road against Eastern Conference opponents, and pushed their overall road record to 7-6.
In 2017-18, the Kings won only won 13 road games. They are over halfway to surpassing that total as we head into the second week of December.
Closing Time
Sacramento loves crunch time.
So far this season, the Kings are 9-0 when leading after three quarters.
Leading 96-89 going into the fourth quarter, Sacramento jumped out to a 12-2 run to begin the period in thanks to the play of Fox and Marvin Bagley III.
The Kings never looked back, going on to outscore the Cavs 33-21 in the fourth quarter en route to their third straight win.
Bagley III returned from a two game absence to chip in with 17 points in 25 minutes.
Bogdan Bogdanovic contributed with 15 points, four rebounds and four assists off the bench. Bogdanovic has continued to play back-up point guard, running the second unit and keeping the offense sharp while Fox catches his breath on the sideline.
The More You Know
The Kings, at 13-11, continue their best start since the 2004-05 season.
It has been 13 years since the last time Sacramento won their 13th game before December 8th.
While it may be too early to even sniff the playoffs, these Kings are showing again and again that they are very much for real, and are not to be taken lightly.
Looking into the past, the average amount of wins the Kings have had on December 8th is a staggering 8.5 wins.
Just last season, it took the Kings 38 games to hit the 13 win mark, on January 6th nonetheless.
Back-to-Back
Sacramento will look to extend their winning streak to four on Saturday night when they take on the Indiana Pacers.
The Kings beat Indiana last Saturday at Golden 1 Center in an exciting finish, with Willie Cauley-Stein sealing the Kings 111-110 win with a put-back dunk late in the fourth quarter.
All-star guard Victor Oladipo will miss Saturday’s contest with a knee injury.
Catch all the action right here on Sports 1140 KHTK at 4:00pm.
Three straight Ws for the squad! 🙌
Let’s sit back and watch these fun moments again 🍿⤵️ pic.twitter.com/PvuawEQqdF
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) December 8, 2018