De’Aaron Fox Has First Career Triple Double as Sacramento Kings Win 5th Straight

When it comes to playoff contenders in the NBA Western Conference, the Sacramento Kings do not immediately come to mind. The Kings were in the middle of eight straight playoff appearances in the 2001-2 season when they were the top seed in the Western Conference, and came within one win of reaching the NBA Finals before losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Conference finals four games to three. The team has not made the post season since going out in the first round in the 2005-6 season; the franchise has just one NBA Finals appearance, and that was way back in the 1950-51 season, when the then Rochester Royals won the NBA title in a seven game series win over the New York Knicks.

There’s a long way to go this season, and the Kings are no threat to unseat the Golden State Warriors as the consensus pick to win the Conference title, but Sacramento is at least generating some interest as having a legitimate shot at returning to the playoffs for the first time in 13 years. On November 1st, the Kings won their fifth straight game, beating the Atlanta Hawks 146-115 to improve to 6-3 on the season.

The Kings were led by point guard De’Aaron Fox, who had his first career triple double. Fox poured in 31 points, had 10 rebounds, and 15 assists. Fox, 20, who played one year at Kentucky and was a first round draft choice in the 2017 draft, is only the second player in NBA history to have a triple double before age 21. The other is LeBron James.

Fox was one of five Kings scoring in double figures. Buddy Hield scored 27, Nemanja Bjelica had 19, and Willie Cauley-Stein added 12. This year’s first round draft choice, Marvin Bagley III, chipped in 18 points off the bench.

The Kings are a young team, with just Bjelica (30) and Zach Randolph (37) over 30. They’ve drawn a lot of young talent from powerhouse college basketball programs, including four players from Kentucky, two each from Duke and Kansas, and one each from North Carolina,and Oklahoma. It will be interesting to see how this team develops.