Kings star Fox admits he will likely play all season with finger problems originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
De’Aaron Fox hasn’t been 100 percent so far this Sacramento Kings season. And it will probably remain that way for the rest of the trip.
The 26-year-old point guard recently revealed more details about a finger injury to Kings radio play-by-play announcer Gary Gerould, who watched Fox play with the fingers of his left shooting hand taped.
“Definitely it’s the dominant hand,” Fox said Tuesday night on Sactown Sports 1140 after the Kings’ 113-96 win over the Utah Jazz. “It happened on the second or third day of training camp, so right now I’ve been taping my finger all season.
“Unless we get a month off at some point, it’s going to stay here.”
That’s troubling news for the Kings, as Fox suffered an avulsion fracture of the index finger on his left shooting hand during their first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors two seasons ago. Fox still played the seven-game series with the broken finger, but it was clear how it affected him for the final three games.
In the first four games of the series, Fox averaged 31.5 points on 44.7 percent shooting from the field and 34.2 percent from 3-point range, with 6.0 rebounds, 7.0 assists, 2.5 steals and 3.0 turnovers in 38.5 minutes. Over the last three after suffering the injury, he averaged 22 points on 38.7 percent shooting from the field and 32 percent from beyond the arc, with 4.7 rebounds, 8.7 assists, 1.7 steals and 5.3 turnovers in 38.6 minutes.
He’s now dealing with a similar injury, but he won’t have all season to recover like he did back then.
But you wouldn’t have guessed that Fox has played with an injury this season. He is averaging 21.5 points on 46.4 percent shooting with 4.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists and 1.5 steals in 36 minutes. His three-point shooting is down, at just 29.2 percent from beyond the arc, and he is averaging 3.5 turnovers per game.
The addition of DeMar was expected to take the load off DeRozan Fox and Domantas Sabonis, and while the Kings star hopes to avoid further straining his fingers, that will likely be exactly what he will do.
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