Why Gary Payton II vs. De’Aaron Fox is Warriors-Kings matchup to watch
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Why GP2 vs. Fox is matchup to watch in Warriors-Kings series originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
SAN FRANCISCO — Speed vs. speed. Game-changing defense vs. Mr. Clutch. Grinding through the G League vs. former top draft pick.
That’s Gary Payton II going against De’Aaron Fox.
Plenty of battles between the Warriors and Sacramento Kings in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs will garner headlines and find the spotlight. None is more interesting than the two Sonic the Hedgehog-style guards sprinting up and down the hardwood.
De’Aaron Fox is the centerpiece to the Kings’ fast-paced offense that put up historic numbers this season. At 25 years old, the No. 5 pick from the 2017 NBA Draft had his first All-Star campaign, averaging 25.0 points, 6.1 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 51.2 percent from the field.
Payton, 30, has turned from fan-favorite to the Warriors’ Mariano Rivera, coming off the bench, bringing the crowd to its feet and closing the door on the other team’s glimmer of hope. Give him a surprise start and Payton can inspire his Pedro Martinez impression, defying stature and invoking a giant. He’s a reminder dynamite comes in small packages, a firework show for maybe 15 minutes a night.
And this time of the year is exactly why the Warriors brought him back in a four-team, four-player trade at the Feb. 9 deadline in a deal where they were willing to move on from James Wiseman for a player they let walk in free agency for a contract they wouldn’t match. A player like Fox is exactly who the Warriors had in mind when they signed off on the trade.
“When I look at Gary I just think of the playoffs last year. We started him against Ja Morant,” Steve Kerr said Wednesday after Warriors practice. “And then he got injured and he was out and he missed Game 1 of the Finals. When he came back in Game 2, we won four out of five from that point, and he guarded Jaylen Brown quite a bit.
“In this series, obviously he’ll…
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