De’Aaron Fox scores 24 points and Malik Monk adds 21, but the Kings can’t stop the Warriors when it matters in a pivotal Game 5. Sacramento lost 123-116 and now faces elimination in the first-round NBA playoff series.
SACRAMENTO -- Kings guard De’Aaron Fox made his living in the fourth quarter all season long.
He won the Clutch Player of the Year award in runaway fashion last week and was presented with the trophy Wednesday night at Golden 1 Center ahead of Sacramento’s Game 5 clash against the Golden State Warriors.
But Fox, with a new piece of hardware now in his possession, struggled through a forgettable fourth quarter in Sacramento’s 123-116 loss that more resembled dust than the trophy’s shiny outer surface.
After scoring 17 points in the first half and another seven in the third quarter, Fox didn’t score a single point in the fourth. “Fourth Quarter Fox,” an alter ego that tortured opponents all season, missed all six field-goal attempts and tallied as many turnovers (2) as assists.
Only Malik Monk, with 14 of the Kings' 26 fourth-quarter points, showed up in the final frame.
“Second half, I have to play better personally,” Fox said to reporters after the loss. “Playing a team multiple times, they’re going to make adjustments. At times I had good looks, it just didn’t go in.
“I think [the Warriors] played a good game. Defensively, they got their hands on a lot of balls, a lot of deflections and blocked shots.”
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Fox could make every excuse in the book. He is, after all, playing with an avulsion fracture in the index finger of his left shooting hand, an injury that had him listed as doubtful to play in Game 5.
He looked confident at practice Tuesday and at shoot-around Wednesday morning, and answered all questions surrounding his ability to effectively shoot by nailing all three 3-point attempts in the first quarter.
After the loss, Fox insisted he was “fine," and that his fractured finger didn't harm his play despite it being hit several times as the game progressed. Kings coach Mike Brown gave him more credit than that.
“Yeah, no doubt,” Brown said when asked if Fox’s finger injury affected him late in the game. “Obviously, he’s showing a lot of toughness being out there in the first place. He played 42 minutes. You know the finger got hit throughout the course of the ballgame. But he still hung in there.
“He’s done it for us all year. Whatever he feels he needs to do down the stretch or throughout the course of the ballgame, we’re going to ride with him. No complaints with the way he’s playing.”
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Fox deservedly was named to his first career All-Star Game in February. His first five career playoff games, even with his fourth-quarter struggles Wednesday, have announced to the rest of the world that he is a budding superstar.
Taking the blame and looking inward after losses, no matter how deserved or unfair, is what superstars do. It's what the Warriors' trio of future Hall of Famers did after finding themselves down 2-0 in the series.
You can bet "Fourth Quarter Fox" already is plotting his return Friday in Game 6 in San Francisco.
