A couple nights after missing all three of his attempts from the field, finishing with just two points, Bahamian professional basketball player Chavano “Buddy’” Hield made seven field goals in his next game and finished with 21 points. That performance occurred on Tuesday night, and it helped the Sacramento Kings (14-21) take down the Oklahoma City Thunder (12-21), 117-111, at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California.
The win ended the Kings’ three-game losing skid that started against the Golden State Warriors back on December 20. The Kings also lost to the Los Angeles Clippers and the Memphis Grizzlies during that stretch. The game on Tuesday was their third in a six-game homestand that wraps up on Sunday January 2, 2022.
On Tuesday night, the Grand Bahamian shot 7-for-14 from the field and 3-for-7 from three-point territory. He also had two rebounds and one block in 25 productive minutes on the floor.
Leading the way for the Kings was guard Tyrese Haliburton with a double-double scoring 24 points and dishing out 10 assists.
Hield dropped in eight points in the final quarter to help his team keep the Thunder at a distance. The guard was hot from the field in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. He knocked down a 19-foot pull up jump shot to give his team a 92-81 lead with 10:47 left in the game. The sharpshooter returned two possessions later and connected on a four-foot jump shot to put his team up 94-81 with just over 10 minutes left in regulation. That shot forced Thunder Head Coach Mark Daigneault to call a timeout.
The timeout did not cease the Kings’ offensive
momentum. Hield stepped up to the free throw line with 8:04 remaining and sank two free throws to put the Kings up 98-81. It was their biggest lead of the night as they were in full control of the game.
The lead was reduced to single digits on a made three-point shot from the Thunder with just over two minutes remaining in the game. The Kings led 110-101 at that point. The Thunder got into an offensive groove late in the game but the Kings kept finding an answer. The two teams scored 30 points apiece in the fourth quarter with the Kings coming away with the victory.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way for the Thunder with 33 points.
After the Thunder went up 34-32 at the end of the first quarter, the Kings stormed back and outscored them, 29-23, in the second quarter. They led 61-57 at the half.
The teams had identical shooting nights with the Kings connecting on 42 percent of their shots and the Thunder at 39 percent. The Kings were hot from deep, connecting on 17 of their 39 shot attempts, shooting 43.6 percent as a team. They also moved the ball well with 25 assists on their 40 made shots from the field.
It has been a tough start to the month for the Bahamian as he had scored no more than 15 points in his first four games. He picked it up as the month went on with a big night on Sunday December 19 in which he had a season-high 29 points against the San Antonio Spurs.
There are two more games left in the year for Hield and the Kings and they are looking to end the year on a strong note. A first half of a back-to-back home matchup against the Dallas Mavericks happened last night. No score was available up to press time. The second half of the back-to-back matchup is set for New Year’s Eve, starting at 6 p.m.
The post Hield drops in 21 points; Kings snap three-game skid appeared first on The Nassau Guardian.
source https://thenassauguardian.com/hield-drops-in-21-points-kings-snap-three-game-skid/
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