De’Aaron Fox pulled off greatest missed free throw ever to clinch Kings comeback

The Sacramento Kings trailed the Minnesota Timberwolves by 22 points with just over five minutes to play in the fourth quarter Monday night. That is when the Kings decided to play their most inspired basketball of the season.

The Kings walked away with a 133-129 overtime win after a furious fourth-quarter rally to force overtime. It happened because Buddy Hield went off for 20 in the closing run to put the game within reach. It also happened because De’Aaron Fox completed a picture-perfect intentionally missed free throw in the final seconds to allow Sacramento to tie the game.

Fox went to the foul line to shoot two free throws with the Kings down three with 4.7 seconds left. Fox drained the first free throw to cut the deficit to two. For his second attempt, Fox threw the ball off the front of the rim, gathered his own miss, and laid the ball in to tie the score and eventually send the game to overtime.

This play only works because of both a remarkable amount of self belief and incredible precision. If Fox misses the center of the rim by a quarter inch in any direction, he’s not getting the ball directly back to tie the game. The Kings easily could have seen their mad comeback ultimately end in failure. Instead, Fox’s missed free throw cemented the run as one of the great fourth-quarter rallies we’ve seen this season.

It’s worth noting this also could have been called as a lane violation. Minnesota head coach Ryan Saunders said he tried to challenge it but was told it wasn’t reviewable. It’s impossible to expect any ref to make that call on a bang-bang play at the end of the game like this one.

The Wolves also had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation and in overtime, but came up short in both instances.

Hield led the Kings with 42 points. Fox added 22 in the win. The box score says he shot only 57 percent from the free-throw line, but his team wouldn’t have won without one big miss.