Getty Sacramento Kings star De'Aaron Fox reacts during Game 5 of his team's first-round playoff bout with the Golden State Warriors.
It took a whole lot of hands in order for the Golden State Warriors to prevail in their Game 5 showdown with the Sacramento Kings and take a 3-2 series lead on Wednesday. While Steph Curry and Klay Thompson led the scoring charge, head coach Steve Kerr got contributions from players up and down the roster.
Draymond Green dropped 21 points in a playoff game for the first time since 2017. Kevon Looney logged his second game in the series of 20-plus rebounds and seven-plus assists, a line that had only been logged six times league-wide since 2004 before this postseason. Steph, Klay and Andrew Wiggins combined to score 76 points.
According to Fox Sports’ Skip Bayless, however, none of those things were pertinent to the game’s result. As the controversial pundit sees it, De’Aaron Fox’s finger injury was the sole deciding factor.
“There’s only one reason that Golden State won last night,” Bayless said on Skip and Shannon: Undisputed on Thursday morning. “And it was because in Game 4, unfortunately, De’Aaron Fox fractured his index finger on his left shooting hand. Period. End of story.”
Skip Bayless Doubles Down on His Analysis of Warriors’ Crucial Game 5 Victory
Here’s the SOLE reason the Warriors won last night:
Make no mistake — Fox’s injury played a considerable role in what happened on Wednesday night. After scoring 38 points in Game 4, the 2023 All-Star scored 24 points on just 9-of-25 from the floor — and 3-of-10 from deep — during Game 5.
“It’s just hard at home to overcome that because he’s your best player, and then we get to the fourth quarter, where he was the best statistical clutch player in the fourth quarter in the NBA this year. Guess what he did last night? He was 0-for-6 in the fourth quarter. He was 0-for-2 from three. It won’t work,” Bayless added.
“He’s the reason you got there, and he’s the reason you’re going to exit stage left when you go back to San Francisco Friday for Game 6… They will get closed out because he’s not right and he knows he’s not right and, more importantly, his teammates know he’s not right.”
Clearly, the Kings face an uphill battle, and Bayless’ analysis to that effect actually rings true. But to say that the Fox factor is the only thing that matters right now in the series is robbing the defending-champion Dubs of their just due.
Kevon Looney Is Making Serious Hardwood History With His Efforts vs Kings
Perhaps no player in the current postseason is starring in a supporting role like Looney, whose statistical lines against Sacto have put him into some pretty incredible historical company.
Only five players in the last 30 years have tallied 22 or more rebounds and seven or more assists in a single playoff game — Patrick Ewing, Kevin Garnett, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic and Looney.
Meanwhile, there have been only five instances where a player has logged 20-plus boards and five-plus dimes while scoring less than five points in a playoff contest. You can now credit three of them to Looney; the other two came via Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell.