De'Aaron Fox doubtful for Game 5 with broken finger

Sacramentostar guard De’Aaron Fox broke the index finger on his shooting handand is doubtful to play in Game 5 of the Kings’ first-round seriesagainst the Golden State Warriors.

A personfamiliar with the injury said that Fox injured the finger on hisleft hand late in a Game 4 loss to the Warriors on Sunday. Theperson spoke on condition of anonymity because the team didn’tpublicly release details.

Fox remainedin the game after the injury and even made a key 3-pointer in theclosing minute before Sacramentolost126-125. Fox passed out of a double team on the finalpossession and the Kings lost when Harrison Barnes missed a3-pointer at the buzzer.

The series istied at two games apiece headed into Game 5 in Sacramento onWednesday night.

Fox hasemerged as a star in his first trip to the postseason, averaging31.5 points, seven assists and six rebounds through six games.

His 38 pointsin a Game 1 win were tied for the second most for a player in hispostseason debut and his 126 points so far are tied for the sixthmost for any player in his first four career playoff games.

Fox had 38points, nine rebounds and five assists in the Game 4 loss.

Fox wasannounced last week as the inaugural winner of theNBA’sclutch player of the year award. He led the league inclutch-game scoring this season with 194 points in 39 such games;clutch games are defined as those where the margin between teams isfive points or less at any point in the final five minutes.

That was themost clutch points scored in a season since LeBron James had 197 inthe 2017-18 season.