featured-image

Cauley-Stein’s Offensive Progression on Display

In a dominant 116-94 victory over the Phoenix Suns, Willie Cauley-Stein stole the show, scoring a career-high 26 points on 11-of-19 shooting. Cauley-Stein’s play reached its peak in the fourth quarter, where he scored 13 of the team’s 27 points, matching his scoring total from the first 36 minutes of action.

“He’s worked real hard on his game and it’s good to see him have an offensive game where he can take some chances, and take some opportunity,” said head coach George Karl.

Coming into the 2015 NBA Draft, the Kentucky product was widely considered a defensive specialist with work to do on the offensive end. No. 00’s proved otherwise, adding to his repertoire game by game, and becoming the first Kings rookie since fellow Wildcat DeMarcus Cousins to score 25-plus points off of the bench.

"He’s kind of a unique athlete at 7-feet tall that can do a lot of different things on the basketball court." - Coach Karl

Following the 26-point effort, No. 00 faced a tough task in competing against the Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki. The 22-year-old proved ready for the task, aiding the team in holding Nowitzki to just 6-of-15 from the field.

Additionally, Trill led Sactown with 21 points on an efficient 8-of-11 performance from the field while sinking a perfect 5-of-5 from the charity stripe. His back-to-back 20-point nights drew praise from Dallas’ future Hall of Famer.

"I like him, he's long, he's active, he's got hops, but his midrange game got a lot better from when we saw him earlier in the season. He can knock down a shot, he can put it on the floor ... he made some big plays.”

Willie Trill took a page out of Nowitzki’s arsenal, sinking an impressive turnaround jumper that replicated No. 41’s patented move.

With just eight games remaining, the rookie plans to continue putting his skills to the test.

“I’ve been drilling and drilling and drilling it for months now and to finally get a chance to put it in a game setting and use a game speed and have defenders playing, you’ve got to read the defenders – just putting it all together, that’s what you work for and that’s why it’s fun to play like that.”


Next Up