SACRAMENTO — On the second night of a back-to-back, after having just scored 60 points the night before, De’Aaron Fox put up 49 on the Utah Jazz in a 121-117 Sacramento Kings victory on Saturday at Golden 1 Center.
Playing without Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan and Malik Monk, in a game that lasted 2 hours and 35 minutes, the Kings had to claw back from an 11-point deficit and fight until the final buzzer sounded to pull out the win.
Fox vs. Filipowski
What Fox was able to do on Saturday night was honestly incredible. Not only did he score 60 points in the Kings loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night, but that game went into overtime, so to play a game that lasted more than 20 minutes longer than the average NBA game on Saturday night and put up a statline of 49 points and nine assists is a physical and mental feat.
Fox was finding the matchups he wanted and was absolutely abusing them...for the most part.
While Fox fared pretty well against Lauri Markkanen, John Collins, Cody Williams and even Collin Sexton at times, Jazz rookie Kyle Filipowski was not an easy opponent for the All-Star guard, and Fox hunted that switch many times throughout the game.
The Jazz are starting to realize that Filipowski’s ability to switch out and play against smaller players is a real benefit. They’ve tried simulating a lot of those situations in practice and the rookie has shown he has the speed and ability to keep up.
“Kyle’s shown a massive care factor in those moments,” Jazz head coach Will Hardy said. “You don’t necessarily know how it’s going to translate. The last two games in particular — we can’t simulate De’Aaron Fox and we can’t simulate Luka Doncic, so you’re not sure...but I think for the most part, he did a good job again.
“It makes us think a lot about what defensive coverage to be in when he’s in the game. It’s always a benefit when bigger players can play two coverages.”
Of all of the times Fox ended up getting Filipowski on a switch, he only attempted to shoot twice and he missed both times. Filipowski has noticed the last few games that players are looking to iso on him and he welcomes the challenge, especially since he’s handling himself well so far and against some of the best players in the league.
A positive look at a long night of frustration
There was a lot of frustration over the officiating on Saturday night. The Kings players were visibly frustrated throughout the game, and the Jazz players were frustrated and discussing it after the game.
There were a number of challenges, reviews, a lot of confusion, clock changes, replays and stoppages that drug the game out and made the ending more than just disjointed.
As popular NBA media personality Rob Perez pointed out on social media after the whole charade was over, the final two minutes of the game lasted more than 20 minutes of real time.
There are a lot of players who would and do feel like they lose rhythm in those situations, that the flow of the game is disrupted and that a lot of stoppages means there’s not a lot of actual basketball being played.
But leave it to Collin Sexton to have a positive spin on something that could be incredibly agitating.
“It’s honestly not too bad,” he said, “That’s time when we can all come back together and recenter and talk to one another. When you’re out there, you don’t realize how long the two minutes are. You don’t realize it because everybody’s screaming and yelling and talking. It goes quick.”