Buddy Hield saw his first action of the second half of Friday night's Kings game against the Charlotte Hornets with 5:34 remaining in the third quarter. Hield never made it back to the bench, playing the final 17:34 of the close 124-123 loss.
Hield struggled in the second half, going just 1-for-7 from the field and 0-4 from 3-point range. Kings interim coach Alvin Gentry explained after the loss why he elected to leave Hield in the game despite his troubles making shots.
"He's always a threat to be out there, and he creates spacing as we talked about," Gentry told reporters after the game. "He's going through a tough time right now, he's not shooting the ball well but he's always a threat to shoot it and I think he needed to be out there tonight, there's been other nights where, we didn't go with him the other night down the stretch, but I just felt like he was going to make a big shot for us."
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Hield indeed is amid a rough slump shooting from beyond the arc. Over his last six games, he is connecting on just 14 percent of his 3-point attempts.
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In a close game, Hield can turn the tide with his ability to heat up from behind the 3-point line. Some shooters just need to keep chucking their way out of a slump, and that seemingly was what Gentry hoped would happen with Hield on Friday night.
Hield will have another chance to get back into a groove on Saturday night as the Kings quickly turn around and take on the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team that holds teams to the fifth-lowest 3-point shooting percentage in the league.