Overtime thriller: Kings rally to beat Magic on De’Aaron Fox’s halfcourt buzzer beater

The Kings missed De’Aaron Fox while he was out with a bone bruise in his right knee, but the 24-year-old point guard came back in a big way against the Orlando Magic.

Fox pulled up from the halfcourt logo to hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer as the Kings stormed back from a 20-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Magic 126-123 in overtime Saturday at Amway Center.

“It felt good leaving my hands and the shot went in, so we get out of here with a win,” Fox told Kings TV. “You ask any basketball player, probably at any level, when the ball is going in and you have a rhythm, the basket starts looking like the ocean. I shot that ball and it felt good the entire way. I tried to get as straight in line with the basket as I possibly could so then there’s no variant, no left-right, and then you’ve just got to get it there.”

Domantas Sabonis had 25 points, 11 rebounds and six assists for the Kings (3-5), who will conclude a four-game road trip when they visit the Golden State Warriors on Monday.

Trey Lyles, celebrating his 27th birthday, came off the bench to score 15 points for Sacramento. Malik Monk also had 15.

Rookie sensation Paolo Banchero posted career highs of 33 points and 15 rebounds for the Magic (2-8). Franz Wagner had 31 points. Bol Bol had 23 points and seven rebounds.

“You’ve just got to tip your cap sometimes,” Banchero said. “We fought hard and had the game tied up with five seconds left and then (Fox) hit a 35–40-footer. There’s just not much that you can do about that.”

Orlando’s supersized lineup caused all kind of problems for Sacramento early in the game. The Magic started Jalen Suggs, a 6-foot-5 point guard, with Wagner (6-10), Banchero (6-10), Wendell Carter Jr. (6-10) and Bol (7-2).

The Kings were outscored 22-8 over the first 5:36. They didn’t secure their first rebound until the 4:40 mark, going over seven minutes without grabbing a board. The Kings battled back to cut the deficit to three, but they trailed 33-25 at the end of the first quarter.

The Magic reestablished a double-digit lead early in the second period. The Kings got within six with six minutes remaining in the half, but the Magic responded with a 14-2 run to take a 61-43 lead on a four-point play by Bol.

Orlando led 65-47 at the break. The Magic shot 60.5% from the field while amassing a 27-14 rebounding advantage.

“You can’t start the game like we did today,” Fox said. “If you want to win in this league, you want to put together as many minutes of 48 as you possibly can, but we came out in the second half and I think we hit first. I think at the beginning of the game, they hit us first and they got off to a good start, but in the second half we started getting stops. We got out and ran and that’s how you put together a win on both ends of the court.”

Kings coach Mike Brown did not like what he saw in the opening half.

“We know we didn’t play well in the first half at all,” Brown said. “We were giving up lob dunks on the weak side cause we weren’t there to protect our teammates. We were giving up blow-bys. We were giving up middles. Everything that we talk about defensively, we were getting compromised.

“I told our guys, basically, ‘Were better than this.’ I said I don’t care if we win or lose the game, but the way we’re playing, that’s not us. And if we have any pride as a group, we’ll go out there and fight, and whatever happens with the win or lose, we’re gonna live with it, but lets at least go out and fight.”

The Kings trailed by 20 early in the third quarter before they finally came to life, staging a 14-2 run to reduce the deficit to eight. They cut Orlando’s lead to five on a basket by Sabonis and got within one on a driving layup from Fox.

Fox and Sabonis went to the bench after Sabonis picked up his fourth foul with 2:33 to play in the third, but the Kings kept coming.

They took a 78-77 lead on two free throws by Chimezie Metu and carried an 83-77 advantage into the fourth quarter after outscoring the Magic 36-12 in the third. The plus-24 point-differential was the Kings’ largest since they outscored the Lakers by 26 in the third quarter on Dec. 12, 2016.

The Kings went up by 10 early in the fourth, but the Magic mounted a 12-0 run to reclaim the lead with 6:09 to play. The teams traded leads a number of times in the final minutes before Fox banked in a pull-up jumper with 25.4 seconds remaining to send the game to overtime.

Orlando tied the game on Chuma Okeke’s dunk with 6.6 seconds to play, setting the stage for Fox’s heroics.

“He does what he does,” Brown said. “His super power is his speed. He got that ball up the floor and he’s been working diligently on his shot. He’s extremely confident and he pulled up and hit a big shot for us to win the game.”