On the strength of a six-game winning streak, DeAndre Ayton and the Phoenix Suns (35-14) are sitting in second and eyeing the number one seed in a tough Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). They took down the Houston Rockets (13-37), 133-130, at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, on Monday night.
Chavano “Buddy” Hield and the Sacramento Kings (22-29) were not so fortunate as they fell to the Minnesota Timberwolves (13-38), 116-106, at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Monday night.
Hield finished with 18 points in the game against the T-wolves, all of which came on made three-pointers, and he now sits at the top of the league this season in made three-pointers with 204 as of yesterday afternoon. Hield finished the night 6-for-17 from the field and was 6-for-16 from three-point range. The three-point specialist has made 288 field goals in total this season, meaning that 70.8 percent of those made field goals have come from beyond the arc.
With 21 games left on the Kings’ regular season schedule, Hield is on pace to make 288 three-pointers. He is averaging four made shots from deep per game and is averaging 38.3 percent shooting from deep.
The Grand Bahama native is the first player this season to go over the 200 made three-pointers mark. The Portland Trailblazers’ Damian Lillard and the Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry both have 196 made three-pointers. The Miami Heat’s Duncan Robinson is the next closest with 173 made three-pointers.
Apart from reaching the 200-mark in threes made, Hield was also able to grab seven boards, dish out three assists, record two steals and pick up one block in 32 minutes of play against the T-wolves.
Hield missed his first four shots of the game but converted on his next two. He made his first shot at the top of the key at the 7:28 mark of the first quarter to tie the game at 13. The Kings held a 29-26 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Hield made one basket in the second quarter, and the Timberwolves tied the game at 55 heading into the second half.
The sixth overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft made his first shot for the Kings out the break to give his team a 58-57 lead with 11:28 remaining in the third quarter. At the 6:11 mark, Hield made another three-point shot to put his team up 70-64. After the Kings took an 80-72 lead with 3:11 left in the third quarter, the Timberwolves closed out the quarter on a 10-2 run, tying the game at 82 at the end of the third quarter.
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