Kings’ De’Aaron Fox Sounds Off After Heat Loss: ‘Have to Play Better'
On the second night of a back-to-back, the Sacramento Kings fell short of pulling out a win at home against the Miami Heat, 110-121, dropping to a 33-24 record on the season. While Sacramento put together a valiant performance in the fourth quarter to come back from a 20-point deficit, their efforts fell just short.
As it stands, the Kings now drop to the 7th spot in their tightly contested playoff picture in the Western Conference, effectively placing them into the Play-In Tournament if the season ended today. While, thankfully, there are still a little over 20 games to be played, it's a clear sign that Sacramento needs to start pressing their foot on the gas before they get left in the dust.
After the game, De'Aaron Fox spoke at the podium after the Kings' Monday loss, noting the team as a collective simply has to perform better moving forward:
"We have to play better. We have to be able to get stops. Obviously, there were times where we got it down four, six, eight, then they make a shot at the end of the shot clock, but we have to be better. It's not like they didn't come in here and play well. They came in here and they played well, both offensively and defensively. We fought back, and got back into the game, but we have to be better. We can't turn the ball over, I can't turn the ball over like I did, but it's not like they didn't come in here and make some tough shots. I think they beat us to 50/50 balls, a majority of 50/50 balls. So, the effort, we need to be better, but they played better than us."
Fox finished the game with a well-rounded stat line of 27 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three steals, and a block on a respectable 13/24 clip from the field. On the downside, he gave up seven turnovers as a part of the Kings' team total of 15. In order to put together consistent W's on the board, being able to take care of the rock is critical.
Even with Domantas Sabonis chipping in with another triple-double on the year (14 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists) and Keegan Murray's flamethrower shooting, the Kings couldn't get it done. Instead, All-Star Bam Adebayo showed out in the absence of Jimmy Butler, dropping 28 points, ten rebounds, and seven assists to lead Miami to their fourth-straight win.
The Kings will get an opportunity to bounce back on Wednesday as they travel to take on Nikola Jokic and the reigning-champion Denver Nuggets.
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