Lavine’s poised demeanor guided Kings’ emotional win over Spurs originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – Facing arguably the most emotional night of his brief Kings’ career with the return of former franchise star De’Aaron Fox, Zach LaVine was adamant that he didn’t feel any sort of extra pressure going up against player that he replaced.
With the Kings trying to jockey for better positioning in the NBA’s Western Conference, LaVine had bigger, more important things on his mind beyond handling Fox’s return.
Not that LaVine was completely ignorant of the moment. He knew what was coming and kept his focus on getting another win for the Kings instead of what Fox did or didn’t do at Golden 1 Center.
“I feel like each game you have to put pressure on yourself, especially with how tight the (Western Conference) is,” LaVine said after the Kings easily handled the Spurs, beating San Antonio convincingly 127-108 on Friday night. “We knew how important it was with him coming back to the building, I was going to be ready.”
LaVine was definitely ready for the game. While the crowd repeatedly serenaded Fox with boisterous boos throughout the night, LaVine was busy dropping buckets from all over.
He finished with a game-high 36 points while shooting a steady 14-for-22, including 7 of 11 from distance. The 22 attempts are the most that LaVine has tried since joining the Kings but certainly not surprising since Sacramento was without two injured starters in Domantas Sabonis and Malik Monk.
Afterward, Kings interim coach Doug Christie praised LaVine and the rest of the Kings for maintaining their focus and not getting caught up in the Fox return hype despite all the reminders throughout the night, including a tribute video played before the game.
“That was part of my messaging to them was making sure that we don’t get caught up in that,” Christie said. “That’s part of what happens when you promote a game and a lot of different things, but that’s not what we’re here to do. We’re here to win the ballgame and we have to figure out a way to navigate through all that.”
DeRozan, a teammate of LaVine for several seasons dating back to their time with the Chicago Bulls, credited his Sacramento teammates for handling the night with poise.
“Coming in we knew the energy was going to be high playing against the Spurs with Fox coming back and everything,” DeRozan said. “That was a perfect game for us to bounce back at home.”
LaVine has openly talked about his struggles during his first few days with the Kings. Back then the No. 13 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft was trying to hard to fit in.
That took some time but it’s clear that LaVine is very comfortable now, and the results are clear to see.
“Zach is a special and spectacular player,” Christie said. “And I think there’s even more levels to it. He has the ability to play off ball with his quickness, backdoors, lobs. But then he can play backside action and hand off to him. Then there’s the ‘Get the hell out of the wat’ at the same time. Not everybody has that.
“I think Zach will continue to evolve. I’m really really glad he’s on our side wearing our jersey.”
That’s the same sentiment expressed by several fans as they left G1C late Friday night. On one hand they spent part of the evening unleashing boos on Fox. Whenever LaVine got the ball and went to work, though, the crowd went nuts.
Download and follow The Deuce & Mo Podcast
Read the full article here
