Fox, Kings send perfect message in thrilling win over Rockets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – After Thrilling Kings 120-111 victory Against the Houston Rockets on Tuesday night, De’Aaron Fox sat at the podium in his postgame press conference and was essentially asked the same question three times.
The first time, he was asked how he thought his team responded to the second-quarter standoff with Dillon Brooks and other Rockets players.
“I think we responded well,” Fox said. “Like you said, people don’t usually do that to me – for good reason. However, I was not spoken to after that. But as a team we definitely responded well.
Simple and relevant.
Moments later, he was asked how much fun the game seemed to him.
“Like I said, people don’t talk to me all the time,” Fox responded. “So not much to say after that.”
Finally, Fox was asked again if he enjoys these moments when tensions rise and he thrives.
Another short, blunt and potentially cryptic response followed.
“You tell me something, come take a look,” Fox said.
This adventure began late in the second quarter when Brooks, a self-proclaimed NBA villain, showed his typical antics with Domantas Sabonis. The Kings’ star center wasn’t bothered by any of it, reacting the only way he knew how: on the court with his play. A 5-foot hook shot to be exact.
Moments later, Fox was booked for a personal foul on Jabari Smith Jr., and the two began exchanging words as other players from both teams got involved. After several minutes of back and forth and players having to be separated and taken back to their respective benches, Brooks, Smith Jr. and Malik Monk were given a technical foul.
After the discussions finally died down, the energy didn’t calm down — at least for Sacramento.
The Kings responded with an 11-1 run to close the first half. Eight of those points came from Fox. He had 10 total since the heated altercation occurred at 4:19 of the second.
“I thought our guys were competitive,” Kings coach Mike Brown said after the game. “When things started and they faced us, or something happened to them, we started like we’re supposed to, but we did it smart. And that’s how we compete. You can compete without having three, four, five, six techs or getting eliminated from the game.
“You can make sure your presence is known on both sides of the floor, and that’s our third standard.” And I thought our guys did that at a very high level. A hell of a game from everyone.
Sacramento continued this momentum in the third quarter, outscoring Houston 42-29 before the Rockets completely lost their composure in the fourth.
Rockets coach Ime Udoka and Rockets center Alperen Sengun were ejected after committing two technical fouls with just under two minutes left in the game.
Fox may not outwardly declare it, but the way he comes alive and thrives on all the trash talk is nothing new to his game. We’ve seen this happen time and time again.
But Tuesday night was especially special — and necessary — for a Kings team that had lost six of its previous seven games. They needed their leader, and he kept his promises.
And even if he doesn’t say it, his right-hand man Monk will.
“When someone starts talking to Fox, they shut down even more,” Monk said. “I think we need more teams to do that to him.”
Monk added that he loves the competitiveness that comes from all extracurricular activities, as was the case Tuesday night, adding “That’s why you play basketball.”
There were a lot of fires inside the Golden 1 Center Tuesday night, but one team kept theirs under control while the others got out of control. It’s a trait Brown hopes the Kings can maintain moving forward. He doesn’t necessarily want his men to fight, but he doesn’t want them to back down either. For him, it’s about being smart.
On Tuesday, his guys were.
And perhaps smartest of all was Fox, joined by the ever-steady and hard-hitting Sabonis and stalwart frontman DeMar DeRozan. After the game, Brown said Fox spoke to the team and applauded the overall effort.
“This is what we’re supposed to be,” Brown said. “It’s not about bottling it. That’s our standard. We have to compete, and we competed for 48 minutes tonight. Fox told our group at the end in the locker room, he said that the way we competed in terms of physicality that we brought to the table, how well we played for each other, how we guarded, covered each other and allowed 20 free throws. ‘East a hell of a job and we have to keep it up because that’s who we are. That’s what he said.
Fox finished with 22 points on 9-of-19 shooting from the field and 4-of-6 from 3-point range, with six rebounds, seven assists, three steals and one block. He had a plus/minus rating of plus-17 in 37 minutes.
It takes gasoline and an engine to get a rocket off the ground, but it only takes a few words to get a fox going. Let this serve as a warning to the rest of the league – and a lesson learned for the Rockets.
