BBNBA: Kings win, Julius Randle on a tear, Lakers lose again
We have a mammoth stats spreadsheet covering Saturday night’s action. Let’s praise Julius Randle and De’Aaron Fox and discuss yet another Lakers loss. We’ve got a fun one today, guys!
Fox, Sabonis, Kings breeze by Wizards
Trade deadline buyers beat trade deadline sellers in last night’s matchup between Sacramento and Washington. De’Aaron Fox and his new buddy Domantas Sabonis combined for 42 against a Wizards team that lost Bradley Beal for the rest of the season and sent out Spencer Dinwiddie and Montrezl Harrell during Thursday’s trade deadline.
Fox led all scorers in the game with 26 points on 10-21 shooting and continues to look completely rejuvenated. While most of the conversation surrounding the Kings-Pacers trade centered around Haliburton and Sabonis, perhaps the biggest improvement for Sacramento was earning back Fox’s trust and enthusiasm in the franchise. He’s played better, more energetic basketball since the deadline, looking like the type of star teams should build around.
Sacramento is a game and a half out of the final play-in spot with Portland, San Antonio and New Orleans ahead of them. The Kings are easily the most talented of that group following the deadline acquisitions. If they get this version of Fox, they’ll land that 10-seed, I’d bet.
Julius Randle is a man on a mission
Julius Randle’s follow-up to his MIP, MVP-contending season isn’t what he or fans had hoped. He’s been largely inefficient in ’21-22, bickers with fans on occasion, and the team as a whole isn’t winning at the rate they were last season. New York lost again last night, their fifth of six so far in February. However, Randle is doing everything in his power to will the Knicks to victory during the skid.
While he played well in the last week-plus, Randle and the rest of the Knicks just aren’t consistent enough to climb the standings. Immanuel Quickly and several others took a step back after really solid years in 2021 while Tom Thibodeau is an ever-revolving turnstile in terms of who plays major minutes on a given night.
Look, last year always seemed like a flash in the pan for New York. A lot of factors came together to make a should-be fringe-play-in team the Eastern Conference’s 4-seed. People expected a small step back at least. Perhaps they were even flukier than we thought.
Still plenty of time to rebound and get in that play-in.
Miami, Phoenix win to keep one-seeds
Miami is the quietest one-seed I can remember. Not a ton of talk surrounding them but a remarkably solid roster all the way around with, of course, a great culture established from the coaching staff to the stars all the way down to the 15th man on the bench.
They were winning before getting Bam Adebayo and Jimmy Butler back. Since their return, Miami only improved. Heading into yesterday’s game against Brooklyn, the Heat were winners of four in a row, all by 15+ points. Well, they only won by four at home yesterday but maintained their one-game lead over Chicago for the top spot in the East.
Adebayo and Tyler Herro had pretty standard performances. Adebayo scored 19 and grabbed 14 rebounds while Herro came off the bench for 15 and seven.
Devin Booker tallied 26 points and he could have missed every single shot and scored 0 points and the Suns would have still won by a point against the Orlando Magic. Phoenix had little trouble against the 13-45 Magic in a blowout win to advance to 46-10. Heck of a record!
Lakers fall in close one against Warriors
Yep, this is where we are in the Lakers season. Moral victories! Los Angeles took a bus ride to San Francisco to face the Warriors on Saturday but ran into a scalding Klay Thompson, who torched the Lakers for his best performance since returning from his two-season absence. LAL held on to the bitter end, losing by just a bucket on the road. Progress, apparently, for the 2020 champs, who haven’t looked better in a game for quite a while.
Anthony Davis did not look his best, though. For the second straight game, AD cocooned in the fourth quarter and took less than 15 shots in the entire game. Dude, you’re supposed to be a top-10 player in the NBA. Get aggressive!
He’s just 1-3 from the field in the last two fourth quarters of Lakers loss, and against Portland and Golden State, who, without Green, doesn’t offer a ton of resistance in the paint. C’mon Anthony, what happened to the high-flying badass from 2018 and 2020 who eviscerated opposing frontcourts and scored 30 points a night? The Lakers need that guy back desperately.
Statistics
| Player | Result | Points | FG(3PA) | Rebounds | Assists | Steals | Blocks | Turnovers | Minutes | +/- |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Julius Randle (NYK) | 112-103 L @ POR | 28 | 8-20 (0-4) | 16 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 41 | -4 |
| De’Aaron Fox (SAC) | 123-110 W @ WAS | 26 | 10-21 (0-4) | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 38 | +11 |
| Devin Booker (PHO) | 132-105 W vs. ORL | 26 | 10-24 (3-9) | 5 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 29 | +13 |
| Bam Adebayo (MIA) | 115-111 W vs. BKN | 19 | 8-12 (0-0) | 14 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 37 | +22 |
| Keldon Johnson (SAS) | 124-114 W @ NOP | 16 | 6-13 (2-8) | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 32 | +5 |
| Anthony Davis (LAL) | 117-115 L @ GSW | 16 | 5-13 (0-1) | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 35 | -6 |
| Tyler Herro (MIA) | 115-111 W vs. BKN | 15 | 4-11 (0-3) | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 23 | -6 |
| Malik Monk (LAL) | 117-115 L @ GSW | 12 | 5-9 (1-4) | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 20 | +7 |
| PJ Washington (CHA) | 125-118 L vs. MEM | 4 | 1-4 (1-4) | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 23 | -13 |
| Immanuel Quickly (NYK) | 112-103 L @ POR | 4 | 1-6 (0-3) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | -10 |
| DeMarcus Cousins (DEN) | 110-109 W @ TOR | 4 | 1-6 (0-0) | 5 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 13 | -2 |
| Nerlens Noel (NYK) | 112-103 L @ POR | DNP – Knee | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Eric Bledsoe (POR) | 112-103 W vs. NYK | DNP – Achilles | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Nick Richards (CHA) | 125-118 L vs. MEM | DNP – CD | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Trey Lyles (SAC) | 123-110 W @ WAS | DNP – CD | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Rajón Rondo (CLE) | 103-93 L @ PHI | DNP – CD | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC) | 106-101 L @ CHI | DNP – Ankle | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Brandon Boston Jr. (LAC) | 99-97 W @ DAL | DNP – CD | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Today in the NBA
2:00 p.m. (ABC) Hawks @ Celtics
3:00 p.m. Timberwolves (Towns, Vanderbilt) @ Pacers (Jackson)
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