The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

IN an eventful weekend for Bahamian players in the NBA - Kings interim head coach Alvin Gentry continues to laud the growth of Chavano “Buddy” Hield, Deandre Ayton and the Phoenix Suns chase franchise history and Kai Jones got the first field goal of his NBA career.

Hield scored 13 of his 25 points after regulation to help lead the Kings to a 141-137 triple overtime thriller on Saturday night at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.

Gentry, now 2-1 as interim head coach since the Kings fired Luke Walton last week, said Hield’s growth and maturation has been evident in the years since the two were first connected with the New Orleans Pelicans.

Gentry served as Kings head coach when the franchise selected Hield with the No.6 pick in the 2016 Draft. He spent 57 games of his rookie season in New Orleans before he was traded to Sacramento.

“I drafted him. That’s all you need to know. I mean it’s pretty simple, I think he’s a good player. I drafted the guy in New Orleans and he played for us as a rookie,” Gentry said. “Obviously he’s advanced since those days and became one of the premier shooters in the league. He’s about all the right things, he gets himself kind of in a quandary sometimes but for the most, he’s playing hard, he’s playing to win and if you got guys like that’s all you can really ask for.”

Hield shot 8-21 from the field and just 3-13 from three-point range, but hit several key shots down the stretch, including a three pointer to force overtime and another mid-range jumper to force a second overtime.

“I don’t really look at Buddy’s shooting percentage or anything like that. I think with him, you just have to let him go and, at some point in the game, he’s going to make a big shot for you, or he’s going to put you in a position where you can win the game. We ride with him because we really do feel like there’s going to be a point in the game where he can help us win,” Gentry said. “We’ve got a resilient group. We just have to try to establish consistency in what we’re doing and how we’re playing the game. For us it takes a village and that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Deandre Ayton and the Phoenix Suns are currently in the midst of the second-longest win streak in franchise history at 16 games.

Ayton finished with 10 points and six rebounds in Saturday’s 113- 107 win over the Brooklyn Nets.

In eight games since he returned from injury with a leg contusion, Ayton has averaged 16.4 points and 11.6 rebounds on 68 percent shooting from the field with four double doubles.

During the win streak, the Suns rank near the top of the league in several categories, including fifth in offence, second in defence, second in net rating, fourth in effective field-goal percentage, fourth in true-shooting percentage and second in pace.

The Suns are currently second in franchise history behind the 2006-07 side that won 17 straight and finished with the second best regular season record in Suns history at 61-21. Phoenix looks to tie the franchise record in a matchup of the league’s top teams tomorrow night when the Suns (17-3) will host the Golden State Warriors (17-2) at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona. The two teams will face each other three times in the next 28 days.

Suns head coach Monty Williams said continuity is the key to the team building on last year’s success of advancing to the NBA Finals.

“We have had to turn the age as it relates to last year. We accomplished a lot but my mindset is to continue to grow the programme,” he said. “I thought we would be better just because of the continuity having Chris in back-to-back years was going to make us a lot better. We’ve had a number of guys in our programme for three years and that has helped us but adding JaVale [McGee], Elfrid [Payton] and Landry [Shamet] has certainly helped our programme so I’m not surprised, I’m grateful that the Lord has blessed us with guys who compete everyday, has embraced our culture and I hope our fans are enjoying the kind of basketball we play night in and night out.”

Kai Jones has fluctuated between the Hornets’ main roster and the G-League affiliate Greensboro Swarm but had the opportunity to record a career milestone in his latest callup.

Jones scored the first points of his NBA career Saturday night in the Hornets’ 133-115 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Jones scored a late dunk with an assist from fellow rookie James Bouknight.

The No.19 pick in last June’s Draft, Jones played sparingly before he was assigned to the Swarm. In three games with Greensboro he averaged nine points and 4.3 rebounds per game.