BBNBA: De'Aaron Fox scores 44, plus a LeBron James game for the ages
Continuing with this weekend’s theme of UK Athletics excellence, former Wildcats went crazy in Saturday’s slate of NBA games. Let’s talk De’Aaron Fox and Karl-Anthony Towns.
Towns with 36 & 15 as T-Wolves cruise
Few teams in the NBA are hotter than the Minnesota Timberwolves. Yes, you read that right. Behind their three-headed monster of Karl-Anthony Towns, D’Angelo Russell and Anthony Edwards, the T-Wolves are smoking opponents lately.
Saturday night marked their fourth straight win as Minnesota staved off a Portland team that recently gutted most of its starting lineup. KAT led with 36 points on a perfect 13-13 shooting clip from inside the arc. The Trail Blazers backups never stood a chance against the behemoth center.
Their last week was spectacular, but Minnesota has played at a high level for several months now. Since the start of the calendar year, the Timberwolves have won two thirds of games with a 20-10 record while posting the seventh-best net-rating in the NBA over that span, outscoring opponents by 5.5 points per 100 possessions. We love seeing a happy and winning KAT.
Hear me out: how realistic is major postseason success for this group. I’m saying…could Minnesota be last year’s Hawks? A talent-loaded team that got hot late in the year and rode a healthy, young core to the brink of of the Conference Finals. It’s not crazy! Maybe a tiny bit, BUT… let’s look at the standings. Minnesota is within a couple games of Dallas and Denver at the fifth and sixth seeds. At the top, Golden State is in free fall, Memphis is just as inexperienced as the Wolves and Phoenix is dealing with another late-season Chris Paul injury.
Few teams are playing better since the turn of the year and just as few feature a trio of scorers as dangerous as Minnesota, especially among Western Conference teams. Nobody picked Atlanta to go to the ECF in the middle of last year. Just because other teams have LeBron James, Steph Curry, Luka Doncic and so on doesn’t mean they just get handed a Conference Finals appearance. Atlanta took those playoff series against New York and Philadelphia by force when no one expected it. Why can’t Towns and these Timberwolves do the same?
Fox scores 44 points (!!!) …in another loss
It is cruel and unusual punishment for De’Aaron Fox to keep posting these crooked stat lines while his team loses. He’s not scoring 44 in games where the Kings lose by 20 and Fox goes wild in garbage time. He’s playing amazing basketball while Sacramento keeps coming up just short.
His season-high on the year failed to earn the Kings a victory. Instead, a one-point loss to the Mavericks. 18 games below .500 now for Sacramento. (Sigh).
As for Fox, I’d be remiss not to mention how unbelievable his run of performances is since the Haliburton/Sabonis swap. He’s averaging 28.2 points and 6.1 assists while shooting 51.7% from the field. Stupid good numbers for a point guard. If anyone is left questioning whether the Haliburton trade was worth it…Fox has certainly come out motivated to prove he’s the one to build around in Northern California.
Heat suffocate 76ers
Philadelphia eviscerated its opposition for the first week of the Harden-Embiid-Maxey trio. Then they ran into the Miami Heat. Important to note James Harden sat yesterday, but Miami’s defense deserves major props regardless as the Heat bullied the Sixers in a 99-82 win.
82 points is Philadelphia’s lowest point total since a 2017 loss to the Bucks in a game where Alex Poythress played 23 minutes. No players from that game remain for the Sixers. So the Heat’s defensive performance is relatively historic.
Even though he shot poorly from the field and scored just six points, Bam Adebayo played a massive part in the win, holding Joel Embiid to 4-15 shooting while forcing him to earn most of his points at the free-throw line. Not to worry about the off night offensively for Bam, though. Tyler Herro provided the scoring spark off the bench yet again, co-leading Miami with 21 points on 9-16 shooting from the field.
Also, there’s this crazy stat:
All hail The King
Look, he’s no former ‘Cat, but I don’t really care. I’m taking some time to celebrate LeBron James and his FIFTY-SIX points as a 37-year-old, 19-year veteran.
56 ties as the third-highest scoring game of his entire career. You know, one of the two greatest careers of all time. And we got to see him perform at his peak against Steph Curry, Klay Thompson the Warriors last night. Just like old times.
I guess there is a Kentucky connection: Malik Monk scored on the nose of his season-average with 12 points on four made threes. Very much needed next to LeBron’s 56 considering the Lakers still almost lost despite one of the best single games of LeBron’s career. Are you kidding me?
The King is back to averaging above 29 points a game and is within a point of matching the highest per-game scoring average of his career over a single season. The continued absence of Anthony Davis and a hot March could result in a body of statistical work that trumps all of his other seasons. Again: at age 37! In his 19th season!
Appreciate LeBron James. His alien production at his age is something to behold for basketball fans and there’s never a guarantee this version of him lasts, as inevitable as LeBron may seem.
Statistics
| Player | Result | Points | FG(3PA) | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | Turnovers | Minutes | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| De’Aaron Fox (SAC) | 114-113 L @ DAL | 44 | 18-31 (3-4) | 2 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 40 | +6 |
| Karl-Anthony Towns (MIN) | 135-121 W vs. POR | 36 | 13-17 (0-4) | 15 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 34 | +14 |
| Keldon Johnson (SAS) | 123-117 L @ CHA | 33 | 14-24 (4-10) | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 37 | +1 |
| Tyler Herro (MIA) | 99-82 W vs. PHI | 21 | 9-16 (1-3) | 7 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 34 | +17 |
| Tyrese Maxey (PHI) | 99-82 L @ MIA | 17 | 7-14 (3-6) | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 35 | -22 |
| PJ Washington (CHA) | 123-117 W vs. SAS | 15 | 6-13 (3-9) | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 37 | +9 |
| Jarred Vanderbilt (MIN) | 135-121 W vs. POR | 14 | 5-8 (0-0) | 7 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 37 | +16 |
| Malik Monk (LAL) | 124-116 W vs. GSW | 12 | 4-10 (4-9) | 6 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 31 | +19 |
| Trey Lyles (SAC) | 114-113 L @ DAL | 11 | 5-8 (0-1) | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 18 | +11 |
| Bam Adebayo (MIA) | 99-82 W vs. PHI | 6 | 3-10 (0-0) | 10 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 31 | +6 |
| Nick Richards (CHA) | 123-117 W vs. SAS | DNP – CD | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Eric Bledsoe (POR) | 135-121 L @ MIN | DNP – Achilles | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Anthony Davis (LAL) | 124-116 W vs. GSW | DNP – Ankle | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Today in the NBA
1:00 p.m. (ABC) Nets @ Celtics
3:30 p.m. (ABC) Suns (Booker*) @ Bucks
6:00 p.m. Pacers (Jackson) @ Wizards
7:00 p.m. Grizzlies @ Rockets (Wall*)
7:00 p.m. Jazz @ Thunder (Gilgeous-Alexander, Sarr)
7:30 p.m. (ESPN) Raptors @ Cavaliers (Rondo*)
8:00 p.m. Pelicans @ Nuggets (Cousins, Murray*)
10:00 p.m. (ESPN) Knicks (Randle, Quickley, Noel) @ Clippers (Boston)
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