SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The chant of “Light the beam!” started midway through the fourth quarter as the Sacramento Kings continued to attack the Golden State Warriors.
A year after their season ended at the hands of their neighbors, the Kings gave the Warriors a little payback in emphatic fashion with a win that may have spelled the end of their dynasty.
Keegan Murray The Kings scored 32 points, De'Aaron Fox added 24 points, and the Kings survived the play-in tournament Tuesday night, defeating the Warriors with a 118-94 win.
“We knew what was at stake,” Fox said. “This was just another obstacle in our way. We've got to get over this hump. Obviously, losing to this team last year and obviously playing against this team now. So naturally I feel like I have to play against this team.”
Sacramento ended an NBA-record 16-year playoff drought last season and had a chance to return to the playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference, advancing to Friday night's game against New Orleans.
The Kings avenged their Game 7 loss at home to Golden State in last year's first round with cleaner play and faster loose balls against the veteran Warriors for the franchise's most important victory in 20 years. It became one of the
With the loss, Golden State missed the playoffs for the third time in the past five seasons, including two losses in the play-in tournament. The Warriors committed 16 turnovers, allowed 15 offensive rebounds, took too many open 3-point shots and looked nothing like the dynasty team that won four titles from 2015 to 2022. .
“I was a sophomore in high school and I watched them win the championship,” Fox said. “We've been watching this team for a long time. If that's the end of it, that's it. I'm happy to get a win against this team at this point, but they definitely had a hell of a run.”
Klay Thompson will be an unrestricted free agent this summer, and in what could have been his last game with the Warriors, as the championship trio of Thompson, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green could disband. He missed all 10 shots from the field.
“We need Klay back. I know he had a tough night tonight,” coach Steve Kerr said. “I know I speak for everyone in the organization and we want him back. Obviously there's business at hand and we have to deal with it. …But Clay As good as he has meant to this franchise, we definitely want him back.”
While Thompson struggled, Curry didn't get nearly enough help. Curry finished with 22 points, but was trailed by Keon Ellis for most of the game.
Ellis, an undrafted player, was on a two-way contract until February. 15 points added Along with his strong defense. For Sacramento, Harrison Barnes had 17 points and Domantas Sabonis had 16 points and 12 rebounds.
“For the most part, they had it on us the whole game,” Curry said. “There's really no way around it.”
The matchup between the Northern California rivals, who are less than 100 miles apart, was a rematch of last year's series, which Golden State won. Curry scored 50 points in Game 7.
Although it wasn't quite up to the level of last year's matchup, when Sacramento fans celebrated the end of a record-long playoff drought, the crowd was buzzing from the start.
Murray hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter, and the Kings extended their lead to 16 points in the second quarter, before the Warriors fought back behind the bench and narrowed the lead to 54-50 at halftime.
Golden State closed to a one-point lead early in the third quarter, but Sacramento fought back with a 19-5 run, led by two 3-pointers from Ellis and a big shot from Murray, to push the lead back to 15 points. After that, the Kings were never threatened.
“The first play was for me and I stuck with it early in the game,” Murray said. “They always seem to find me when you're being shot, especially when my gun falls off.”
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Kings: Sacramento is 0-5 in the regular season against New Orleans and hasn't won more than six games against the same opponent in a season since going 0-8 against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1983-84 regular season. play off.
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