The Sacramento Kings built their roster very intentionally to win games in crunch time. De’Aaron Fox won the nba‘s first Clutch Player of the Year award in 2023, and DeMar DeRozan, who they added this offseason, was a runner-up last year. However, the danger of relying so heavily on decisive timing is that it represents only a small portion of the game and is therefore subject to the kind of randomness that can occur in tiny samples.
The Kings entered Monday with a 15.4 net rating, but a record of only 1-3. Their three season-opening losses were heartbreaking late in the game, and Monday’s trip to Miami to face the Heat could easily have ended the same way. Trailing by one in the final seconds, Fox attempted what could have been the winning goal from mid-range, but hit the rim.
Fortunately, the Kings are also built for do-or-die offensive rebounding situations because they have the winner of the league’s last two rebounding titles: Domantas Sabonis. Sure enough, in a sea of seven lengths, Sabonis emerged with the ball and quickly lofted it up and in to take the 111-110 lead.
Sabonis’ shot did not technically end the game. The Heat were left with 0.7 seconds left and called a timeout to tie a play. However, Terry Rozier’s long 3-pointer completely missed the rim, and the Kings took a 111-110 victory after trailing by as many as 15 points in the game.
Ironically, the Kings have been great mostly outside of crunch time this season. They ranked sixth in the nba in overall net rating as of Monday. And while there are still kinks to work out on offense among Sacramento’s many ball handlers, they have mostly controlled games. They had simply fallen victim to the randomness inherent in close games.
They almost did it again on Monday, but an incredible play by Sabonis saved them and they got their record back above .500 at 4-3.
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