Kings fall to Suns in first Summer League Game

Jul 7, 2017
2 min read

De'Aaron Fox struggling to put his shoe back on after an impressive floater. (Courtesy: NBA.com)

The Kings started off their summer league campaign with a defeat against the Suns 89-85. The game was back and forth throughout, but the Suns pulled away at the end.

The Kings started out well with a nice assist from Kings’ first of three first-round picks overall in the draft De’Aaron Fox to Skal Labissiere towards the beginning of the game. In addition, Fox showed a lot of awareness on the defensive end with two steals in the first quarter. Fox began to heat up again towards the end of the third quarter. He ended with 18 points on 44% shooting from the field, four assists, three rebounds, and an impressive five steals.

The first half brought the Kings’ second first-round pick Justin Jackson to show what he is made of, by providing 14 points in the half off the bench in the half, including a two three pointers. He ended the game with 18 points on 64% from the field and 50% from three point range and two rebounds.

Harry Giles, the Kings last first round pick did not play today. However, the last of the Kings’ picks and their only second round pick Frank Mason did play and provided four points on 22% shooting from the field, 2 assists, and four rebounds.

Kings second-year players of Buddy Hield, Skal Labissiere, Malachi Richardson, and Georgios Papagiannis all played as well. Buddy had 11 points on 33% shooting, one assist, and five rebounds. Skal had 10 points on 44% shooting from the field, one assist, and one rebound. Malachi had 8 points on 29% shooting from the field, 33% from three-point range and three rebounds. Georgios had zero points with 11 rebounds and two assists.

An unexpected contributor came from Jack Cooley, who had 11 points on 80% shooting from the field, 10 rebounds, and one assist. Jack brought a double-double off the bench in addition to the effort in the paint throughout the game.

The Kings’ first summer league did bring many things the young Kings team have to work on, but the positives, including De’Aaron’s overall performance, Justin’s shooting, and Jack’s effort are some of the many positives Kings’ fans should stay positive about despite the defeat tonight. The Kings will be back in action for their second summer league on Sunday, July 9th, against the Memphis Grizzlies. The game will be on NBA TV at 7 p.m.