I flipped on the Sacramento-Minnesota game last night when my ESPN app told me the Wolves had a 27-point lead in the third, thinking, hey, Kyle Guy is going to get some minutes.
Guy, unfortunately, never saw the floor.
A modest 12-4 run got the Kings back to 19 at the end of the third, on a seemingly meaningless buzzer-beating three from Kent Bazemore.
It was still 19 until a Bogdan Bogdanovic three with 5:13 to go drew Sacramento as close as it had been since the early moments of the second half.
Which means I’m still thinking, Kyle.
Minnesota coach Ryan Saunders was thinking with me. At the 1:39 mark, the margin at 13, he took his starters out of the game.
I was watching the T-wolves’ home broadcast on NBA League Pass. The announcers were already declaring the end to Minnesota’s nine-game losing streak.
What Saunders missed what that Buddy Hield was in the midst of going off.
Hield hit five threes and converted all three attempts on a three-shot foul with 37 seconds left, the final of that one getting the margin down to six.
Shabazz Napier doinked both ends of a free-throw opportunity with 34.9 seconds to go. Hield then drained a made three at the 30.9 mark.
Three-point game.
We’re now at a point where Sacramento doesn’t even need to foul, just play defense.
Which, worked. Andrew Wiggins missed an 18-footer, De’Aaron Fox rebounded, attacked, was fouled in the frontcourt, the T-Wolves playing the numbers, to keep the Kings from getting up a potential game-tying three.
Guy, sitting on the sidelines, had seen this before. All you need to do is make the first, tap the ball way back on the other side of the court, have Fox track it down, find a post guy to the right of the paint, and watch him make it at the buzzer.
It wasn’t quite that dramatic. Fox made the first, then hit the front rim hard, collected the board, and made the easiest layup you’ll ever see.
Tie game.
Karl-Anthony Towns missed a 17-footer at the buzzer to send the game to OT.
The Kings, needless to say, controlled from there, on their way to a 133-129 win.
Guy didn’t get in. But, hey, he got another night in the NBA, which on his two-way contract means a pro-rated game check based on the $400,000 rookie minimum, roughly $5,000.
A day in the G-League, on the other side of that two-way contract, is game checks based on a $75,000 salary, or $1,500.
Guy got that two-way contract after an impressive Summer League, in which he averaged 14.9 points and 2.6 assists per game, shooting 37.8 percent from the floor and 34.6 percent from three-point range.
The 2019 second-round draft pick is averaging 20.9 points and 4.4 assists in 38.5 minutes per game with the G League’s Stockton Kings, shooting 39.2 percent from the floor, 37.3 percent from three and 71.7 percent from the line.
He also just scored his first NBA bucket, in garbage-time duty on Jan. 24 in a 98-81 Kings’ win at Chicago.
Story by Chris Graham
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