CHICAGO — Sacramento Kings guard Malik Monk wasn’t shocked. Kings head coach Mike Brown knew it was getting in, too. When All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox elevated over Ayo Dosunmu for a possible game-winning 3-pointer Wednesday evening, Chicago Bulls followers contained in the United Heart may very well be heard letting out an exasperated “No!,” seemingly as a result of they’ve seen this film earlier than.

With 4 seconds left and the sport tied at 114 apiece, Fox drained a 3-pointer to carry Sacramento to its forty first win of the season, and secured the Kings a .500 or higher file for the primary time since 2006. 

The win took a comeback effort after being down by 16 factors within the first half, however the late-game heroics by Fox — which additionally included a mid-range jumper that regarded like it might’ve iced the sport for the Kings — had been the spotlight of the night. When the Bulls tangled up the rating within the closing seconds with some clutch moments of their very own, Sacramento wanted to name upon its clutch King as soon as extra, and he delivered.

Monk, who had an excellent view of Fox’s 3-pointer as he stood within the nook on the ground patiently ready to see what his former College of Kentucky teammate would do, wasn’t shocked within the slightest by Fox’s newest clutch second.

“I’m gonna hold saying it man, I’m not shocked,” Monk quipped after the sport. “I’ve been with him for a very long time, I do know what he’s going to do. I obtained probably the most confidence in him. Simply Fox being Fox.”

“Simply Fox being Fox,” a typical chorus amongst Kings gamers and coaches who’ve had a entrance row seat to Fox’s clutch performances all season lengthy. Fox at the moment leads the NBA in complete clutch factors this season, which accounts for factors scored within the final 5 minutes of the sport when the margin is inside 5 factors. However the truth that Fox leads that class isn’t the shocking half, it’s how far aside he’s from each different individual behind him in that stat. Fox has scored 180 clutch-time factors this season, the subsequent closest opponents are DeMar DeRozan and Jimmy Butler with 138 every. In line with our CBS Sports activities senior researcher Doug Clawson, that 42-point margin is the biggest hole between the highest two clutch scorers within the final 15 years, going again to when LeBron James outpaced Kobe Bryant by 104 factors throughout the 2007-08 season.

Participant clutch stats 2022-23

Fox’s clutchness, which has turn out to be commonplace to Kings gamers and coaches at this level within the season, wasn’t one thing that Brown anticipated when he turned Sacramento’s head coach this previous summer season.

“That was one of many issues that once I took the job, I didn’t know the way he can be constantly within the clutch,” Brown mentioned. 

However now after watching it unfold, Brown has brazenly been campaigning for Fox to make an All-NBA team, and has known as him probably the most clutch participant within the league. 

We’ll should see how the All-NBA groups shake out, although Fox ought to definitely be within the combine for it. Nonetheless, Fox’s dominance within the clutch makes him a shoo-in to win the inaugural Jerry West Clutch Player of the Year award. Nobody has been as constant on the finish of video games as he has, and what’s much more spectacular is the variability through which he’s getting these factors. 

Fox is broadly thought-about the quickest guard within the league, and he’ll use that breakneck velocity to get by nearly any defender positioned in entrance of him. When that occurs, he has nice management on the rim the place he’s ending at a 78% clip, not only a career-high, however the highest mark this season by a guard. His mid-range sport has steadily improved over his profession, to the purpose the place he’s changing on 50% of these pictures, which ranks within the 91st percentile. His 3-point effectivity is the one wobbly level of his offensive sport, however in March thus far he’s been taking pictures 37% from past the arc. You combine all that collectively and it’s no marvel he’s been so harmful with the sport on the road.

It’s additionally fairly ironic that two of Fox’s game-winning pictures this season have come off of 3-pointers, an space the place he struggles, together with the one in opposition to the Bulls. The opposite was this informal 35-footer again in November in opposition to the Orlando Magic:

Fox has the offensive weaponry to dismantle nearly any protection. However then once more there’s loads of gamers within the league who’ve versatile offensive video games who haven’t been as deadly as Fox is with the sport on the road. So what places him a notch above the remaining? If you happen to ask Brown, he’ll harp on not simply the basketball acumen Fox possesses, however the points that may’t be quantified by a single statistic. 

“His presence, calmness, demeanor, nonetheless you need to name it has simply been implausible down the stretch of video games, particularly one possession video games,” Brown mentioned of his All-Star guard. “And so for him to stroll into that three, to not disrespect anyone, however when he shot it, I simply felt it was getting in. And that has nothing to do with me, as a result of we didn’t do something however inform everyone to get the heck out the best way. It’s only a confidence that he exudes throughout that point within the sport, and he’s proven play after play after play that he can go get it accomplished.”

Fox credit his teammates and coaches for instilling confidence in him in these moments, and so far as the pattern of him hitting all of his game-winners on the street this season, there’s definitely some significance behind that.

“If you happen to ask anyone whose ever requested me would I moderately hit a sport winner at house or hit one on the street, I’d a lot moderately do it on the street,” Fox mentioned. “I’d moderately silence the group than sort of get hyped, however that’s simply the best way that I’m as an individual. Quiet, not loud. So I like doing it on the street.”

Whether or not it’s at house or on the street, Fox has been the explanation why Sacramento has the sixth-best clutch win proportion. Whereas different particular person awards might come right down to the ultimate sport of the common season to determine, the league ought to already be engraving Fox’s identify on that Clutch Participant of the Yr award proper now. And if he can carry this dominance into the playoffs, opposing groups higher hope Fox doesn’t have the ball in his palms with the sport on the road.