Pick your favorite clutch shot from Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox.
Was it:
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The just-across-mid-court 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Kings a 126-123 victory against Orlando?
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The 3-pointer with .7 seconds remaining for a 117-114 win over Chicago?
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Or the driving layup with .4 seconds left to give the Kings a 117-115 victory against Utah?
Maybe it was another clutch performance he had this season.
For all of his big-time made shots with the game on the line, Fox on Tuesday won the NBA’s first Clutch Player of the Year Award. He captured 91 of 100 possible first-place votes.
The NBA defines clutch time as the last five minutes of a game when the margin is five points or fewer.
During that clutch time criteria, Fox, 25, led the league in scoring at 5.0 points per game and shot 52.9% from the field, 31.8% on 3-pointers and 86% on free throws. Fox and Miami’s Tyler Herro had the most game-winning shots.
Narrowing the definition of clutch time to less time remaining, Fox still posted impressive stats. With three minutes or less remaining in a game within five points, Fox averaged 3.8 points (second-best in the league) and shot 56.3% from the field and averaged a league-high 1.4 points in the final 30 seconds of a game within five points.
Expanding clutch time, Fox averaged 7.8 points in the fourth quarter, sixth-best in the league. In the fourth quarter of Saturday’s Game 1 victory against Golden State, Fox scored 15 of his game-high 38 points.
Fox blossomed into a star this season, making his first All-Star team and he could make one of the three All-NBA teams when they are announced later in the postseason. He had career-highs in points (25.0) and rebounds (4.2) per game and a career-best 51.2% shooting from the field, leading the Kings to the No. 3 seed in the West and their first playoff appearance since 2006.
Follow NBA reporter Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kings’ De’Aaron Fox wins NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year Award
