When De’Aaron Fox made it to the podium after the Sacramento Kings defeated the Golden State Warriors 118-94 to advance to a second Play-In game against the New Orleans Pelicans, he was even-keeled as usual.
During the first few questions, he cracked an occasional smile. But Fox couldn’t contain his grin when asked about his younger counterpart Keegan Murray, who finished with a game-high 32 points, nine rebounds and two steals, and shot 8 of 13 from 3.
“Just seeing his development, and how different he’s been,” Fox said. “Just seeing him come out of his shell, and then also on the court coming out of his shell as well.”
Keegan Murray’s #SoFiPlayIn-record 8 THREES lead the Kings to victory!
They’ll face NOP for the #8 seed Friday 🍿 pic.twitter.com/6ATfC9NIJE
— NBA (@NBA) April 17, 2024
Few know better than Fox the amount of work Murray has put in since Sacramento was eliminated from the playoffs by Golden State roughly a year ago.
Over the offseason, the two spent time together fine-tuning their games. All that hard work manifested itself in Murray leading the Kings past the Warriors in the most important game of the season.
“He worked on his game a ton,” Fox said. “We played a lot of one-on-one. He got more comfortable dribbling the ball and creating his own shot, coming off dribble handoffs and things like that.
“Obviously we want to see it on a consistent basis. But just seeing that come to fruition and seeing the work he put in all summer, especially on a big stage like this, it’s definitely great to see.”
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Murray’s offseason improvements were evident as soon as the ball was tipped. He scored 11 of the Kings’ first 13 points Tuesday. In roughly the first four minutes of the game, he’d outdone his average of 9.7 points across his seven games against Golden State last April.
By the end of the first quarter, Murray’s 14 points were the second-most he’d scored through the first 12 minutes all season.
He did it in front of Kings general manager Monte McNair, who has been vocal about his belief in Murray eventually developing into one of the team’s cornerstones alongside Fox and Domantas Sabonis.
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He did it in front of Kings head coach Mike Brown, who has consistently sought to get more out of the second-year forward on both ends of the floor this season. Brown echoed McNair’s sentiments on how pivotal Murray is to the future of this team.
“Last year Keegan was just a spot-up, catch-and-shoot 3-point shooter,” Brown said postgame. “All season he’s tried his stepback 3, got in the paint and shot his little leaner. … At times, even for his teammates it can get a little frustrating but you know he can end up being great with that stuff. So you’ve got to keep giving him the freedom and confidence to do it.
“His teammates have backed him all year, (the coaching staff) has backed him. It’s just a matter of time, in my opinion, before all those shots that he’s taking and moves he’s making from all three levels become secondhand to him. It’s a lot of fun to watch his growth on both ends of the floor.”
Though Murray scored two points in the second frame, he had a game-high 16 points at halftime and managed 16 more in the second half. This aggressive version of Murray has become commonplace since Malik Monk went down with an MCL strain on March 29.
Counting Tuesday’s performance, Murray has averaged 19.2 points and 6.4 rebounds on 38.6 percent from 3-point range since Monk exited the Kings’ lineup. Before Monk’s injury, Murray was averaging 14.9 points and 5.4 rebounds on 35.9 percent from distance.
“I just wanted to step up with guys out,” Murray said. “Especially the last couple weeks, I just felt like I needed to step up in a way, offensively and defensively. Tonight it was offensively.”
Murray wasn’t able to top his historic 12-triple performance from earlier this season against the Utah Jazz, but his game looked refined enough for one to wonder if Sacramento would have even needed seven games to get past Golden State last postseason.
While the Kings’ entire starting unit scored at least 15 points Tuesday, highlighted by a superb postseason debut from Keon Ellis, Murray was the best player on the floor amongst three, likely four future Hall of Famers in a win that could be seen as cathartic based on how Sacramento’s season ended last year.
This is only one step for Murray in what the Kings hope will be a steady progression in his aggression.
“We want him to go out there, we want him to be aggressive,” Fox said. “He stayed aggressive from the jump. That’s always going to be good for us.”
Murray is now being relied on to bring that same mentality to New Orleans in hopes of walking away with the eighth seed in the Western Conference against a team that defeated them five straight times during the regular season.
“That’s what we expect from him,” Trey Lyles said of Murray after the win. “When he’s open and when he’s aggressive, he’s one of the best to do it. So, he went out there and did what he was supposed to do tonight and we need another one Friday.”
(Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
