Natalia Chi
De’Aaron Fox talks about that life.
The Kings point guard reminded everyone of that again on Wednesday, hitting dagger after dagger in the fourth quarter, hitting a kill-shot 3-pointer with 0.7 left in the game, and finally sending the Bulls sick to the home locker room. sent back to time loss.
Not much of a surprise considering Fox entered the game leading the association in the clutch scoring category. This is defined as his last five minutes of the game in which a team leads or trails by five points or less of him, doing so with a field goal percentage of 54.8, including plus-minus of 32.
It’s a nice badge to wear, but a lot can happen in the last five minutes of an NBA game.
The last time an NBA game was within three points? That was onion time and where the Foxes thrived again this season, scoring a league-best 47 points on 51.6% shooting. More importantly, the Kings are 17-9 in such situations.
Fox is the highest-paid player in Sacramento.
Second only to Fox in scoring under a minute is Dallas’ Luka Doncic, who shot 54.5% from the field in those conditions, and Doncic was the highest-paid player before Kyrie Irving was loaned for the rest of the season. It was the Maverick of
Third in that category? Jimmy Butler. All he made in the Heat was a 57.1% field goal percentage, pushing Miami to his 18-12 record in those conditions. And yes, the highest paid player on the roster.
All max players do max within winning time.
And yet another reason why this Bulls roster is flawed.
DeMar DeRozan was an endgame assassin for two seasons in a Bulls uniform. It cannot be denied. He’s the reason the Bulls were a playoff team last season, and a big reason why he’s still in contention for a play-in spot this year.
In 3-point games with less than a minute remaining, he’s shot 40.9 percent from the field, just like the Bulls. Three big problems? In those instances, he’s his 3-for-0, the Bulls his 6-for-16, DeRozan plays in those situations, and he’s not the biggest player on this Bulls roster.
That distinction rests with a certain Zach LaVine.
Still, DeRozan doubled his shots to 22-11 near the end of the game.
It’s time for coach Billy Donovan to remove Lavigne’s training wheels to prove he’s worth the investment moving forward.
LaVine’s achievement is a 30-point game with less calories, so it’s easy to see why he didn’t.
Add to that his two ridiculous 3-pointers in the final 25 seconds of beating Charlotte in 2019, plus vintage Lavigne moments with the Bulls.
LaVine went 2-for-7 (28.6%) from the field in a three-point game with less than a minute remaining. DeRozan he was 18 to 10 (55.6%).
What about before DeRozan? Lavigne was the unmistakable face of the franchise in his 2020-21 season, but he shot 31.6% in winning time as the Bulls went 8-13 in those games.
2019-20 season? LaVine was 23 to 5 (21.7%). The year before that he was 28.6% and had 7 deals.
Despite his low volume, LaVine has shot 45.5% from the field in that one-minute scenario this season. Maybe he’s learning on the fly. In the end, Fox shot his 37.5% in these situations in his 2020-21 season.
Some people are by nature ruthless killers when the stakes are at stake, while others know it through their failures.
Maybe LaVine has arrived. There’s only one way to tell if a $215 million investment is worth it.
It’s about time LaVine was allowed to show if he was talking about that life.
