One of the best games of the 2022-23 NBA season happened between a pair of upstart squads in the Western Conference, with the Sacramento Kings and the Utah Jazz going blow-for-blow for 48 minutes. It appeared that Utah was able to just eek out a win on their home floor thanks to some heroics by Lauri Markkanen, but unfortunately for them, his game-winning effort needed another fraction of a second to get out of his hand. As a result, the Kings picked up a 117-115 victory.
THIS SEQUENCE AT THE END OF JAZZ/KINGS REGULATION 🤯🤯🤯
Fox puts the Kings on top with 0.4 left… Markkanen hits a wild shot that's waived off upon review.
Kings hold on in a THRILLER. pic.twitter.com/FnSZtEqxVW
— NBA (@NBA) January 4, 2023
It took quite the effort from one King, in particular, to get them across the finish line. De’Aaron Fox scored 37 points, 22 of which came in the game’s fourth quarter. This included this layup in which he blew past Markkanen and made a layup with less than a second remaining in the game.
Utah was out of timeouts after Fox’s layup and damn near had a prayer answered. Markkanen sprinted up the court and threw his hand in the air. Jarred Vanderbilt saw this and threw the ball exactly where Markkanen wanted, which allowed the big man to grab the ball, square up, flick his wrist, and get a shot off that didn’t touch the rim. Unfortunately for Utah, it is very hard to do all of this in 0.4 seconds, which meant Sacramento moved to 20-16 on the year.
