Kings vs Warriors Game 5 Preview: Hold Sweet Home

The Sacramento Kings have come home after a two game trip to San Francisco with their first playoff series in 17 years now a best of three against the defending champion Golden State Warriors. Beat up, frustrated and struggling to hit open shots, the Kings have to figure out how to stop their skid quick, or risk heading into the weekend as the next Western Conference candidates for elimination. Can the comfort of home give Kevin HueRter, Keegan Murray and the rest of our shooters the boost they need to drag their numbers back to the mean? Can De’Aaron Fox continue his fantastic playoff debut with a splint now firmly wrapped around his broken index finger? Will Draymond Green follow up his previous exit from the Golden 1 Center with something even more worthy of the jeers from the Sacramento crowd?

Let’s talk playoff basketball!

When: Wednesday, April 26th, 7:00 PM PT
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: TNT, NBCSCA
Radio: Sactown Sports 1140

For Your Consideration

Fit To Be Tied: Not a single soul in Sacramento thought that this first round match-up against the Warriors was going to be easy. Despite the jokes, the memes, the ribbing at the expense of our silicon-soft neighbors to the West, there isn’t a single reasonable person that believed Golden State would slide out of their historic run over the last decade with whatever the basketball equivalent is to an Irish good-bye. Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have too much pride, too much of a legacy still too establish, too many ideas for dirty plays that remain uncommitted to just lose two straight in Sacramento and decide the band was breaking up. And yes, to give a reminder to those who forgot, those are the stakes of this series – the dissolution of the Golden State Warriors as currently constructed. With Klay demanding a max extension, Green’s contract flexibility coming into this free agency period, and ownership stating that they’re not paying near half a yard next year for anything short of championship contender, a first round exit at the hand of the team they view as Kirkland-brand Warriors could have a rippling effect that could sink the entire bay area in a wall of salty tears.

We knew at close of day that these Warriors would burn and rave and rage, rage against the dying of the light. Now with only two games left guaranteed to be played, the Kings are still in a position to extinguish that light once and for all. 

The Kings certainly have to play better than what we’ve seen in these last two games, better than they’ve played in any of the four so far if we’re being honest. Champions raise their standards, raise their level of play to fit the moment and this moment is one in which the whole basketball world will be watching. The Warriors have been here before, as their fans incessantly remind anyone still looking at the tweets. The Kings, though scattered previously in different playoff situations, collectively have not, and worse yet, it shows. Wide open looks are missed, consistent players suddenly missing in the moment, All-Stars being schemed and reamed into being something less. Now with matching injuries for Fox and Sabonis, the Kings come into a game in which the winner goes on to win the series nearly 85% of the time, at less than their peak at a time where they need to exceed it to truly have a shot. Kings fans can spur a a run into a cascade, can turn a first quarter three into a shotgun blast to the chest for their opponents, but the Kings will have to make those shots, will have to stop a team that’s never truly been stopped when fully healthy. The Kings need more than their fans, they need to be themselves again.

So what now? We’re the proverbial dog who dared to chase the car, our jaws now firmly locked to the bumper and the pads of our paws heating up from the friction of momentum. What does victory look like for the mutts that weren’t supposed to be in this position? Is it enough that we grabbed hold of the thing we’ve so desperately wanted for so long, even if it winds up getting away from us in the end? Is it too much to ask for us to stop the car, to take a small piece as a token before it leaves us in the dust? If we get that far, what’s to stop us from tearing the whole damn thing to shreds – to hell with legacy, to the dump with what remains of the car we weren’t ever supposed to catch.

Prediction

3-2. Kevin Huerter comes alive and the game suddenly opens up for everybody. Sabonis gets a few extra whistles, Davion frustrates Curry a bit more than he’s supposed to, Keegan Murray keeps in lock step with Klay Thompson’s scoring. Fox’s finger bothers him more than we expect, but the other Kings step up in a commanding victory.

Kings: 127, Warriors: 115