The Sacramento Kings weathered multiple runs by the Golden State Warriors and gave themselves a shot to steal a road win in San Francisco. With 10 seconds left, De’Aaron Fox got flummoxed by Stephen Curry’s defense on a switch, kicked it to an open Harrison Barnes, Curry recovered to contest Barnes’ three, and would-be game winner bounced off back rim. Warriors win 126-125.
The game started with an electric first half in which the Kings finally looked like themselves. The offensive flow was so much better than Game 3 that even when shots weren’t falling, it felt like a much more winnable game.
The series is now tied at 2-2, with Game 5 in Sacramento on Wednesday. This certainly feels like a series that could go seven games, as each team continues to respond and react and counterpunch at every step of the way.
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
THE GOOD
Keegan Murray: After a really rough first three games in this series, Keegan Murray showed up big tonight. He started the game aggressive, attacking the basket and going hard after rebounds. It was great to see such an awesome game after the slow start. Keegan finished with 23 points, 7 rebounds, and an assist.
Davion Mitchell: Davion Mitchell has had a breakout series, and it continued this afternoon. On defense, Davion has had Steph Curry in hell. On offense, Davion has found his shot at just the right time. In addition to 27 minutes of absurd defense and just one foul (that was just a ref bailout and not an actual foul), Davion also added 16 points, 6 assists, and 5 rebounds.
THE MEH
Domantas Sabonis: I don’t want to go so far as to say Sabonis was bad. He contributed 14 points, 8 assists, and 7 rebounds, and undoubtedly was an overall positive for the Kings today. But man, this was also a rough outing for Domas. The refs weren’t calling any inside fouls this game, and that was mostly true for both teams, but the refs felt that Sabonis was not fouled a single time this game despite attacking the paint regularly. It flustered Sabonis, and he wasn’t as great as we’ve come to expect.
Malik Monk: I’m sure some will take issue with Monk not being in the Good category, but Monk’s mistakes and rough shots were just as impactful on this game as his positive contributions. Monk did a lot of really good things for the Kings this game, including 16 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals, but he also made some head-scratching rushed shots and careless turnovers. It may feel like I’m nitpicking, but in a 1-point playoff loss I’m ok with nitpicking.
THE UGLY
Kevin Huerter: [In my best Mark Jones impression] “The Kings must be on a diet, because Red Velvet is nowhere to be found.” 2 points on 4 shots, 3 rebounds, 2 assists. Huerter has just been completely silenced in this series, and it’s painful to see.
Rim Protection: The Kings allowed a non-stop layup line to the rim for the majority of this game. The first half it felt like every other play the Warriors would run a basic pick and roll and hit the roll man for an easy 2 points. Interior defense has been an issue for the Kings all season, but it’s not like the Warriors are full of talented interior scorers. The Kings are so worried about giving up threes that the Warriors get whatever they want at the rim.
Turnovers: The Kings actually won the turnover battle, finishing with 10 turnovers to the Warriors’ 11, but this was still a big factor in the Kings losing this game. Some of the turnovers are simply a credit to the Warriors, but too many were just unforced errors.
THE ABSURD
Steph Curry: It’s worth taking a moment to recognize that a big reason the Warriors won this game is because Steph is still a cheat code on offense. His shot making is ridiculous, even when the defense is good. Steph has 32 points on 22 shots. Single-game plus-minus is a deeply flawed stat, but Steph’s +22 (when the next closest Warriors was +8) feels correct.
The King of Kings
De’Aaron Fox. The King in the Fourth. Mr. Clutch. Star Fox. The National TV audience got another incredible display of Fox’s ability to take over a game. Fox finished with 38 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists. Fox had 4 of the Kings’ costly turnovers as well, but it’s hard to harp on the negatives when Fox played such an incredible game. It’s unfortunate the Warriors were able to get the ball out of his hands for the final possession, because he was magnificent down the stretch.
Ouch
If you told me Kings win 3 of 4 quarters and the 4th by 9, I would’ve taken it. That 14 point swing in the 3rd was the difference with that late Klay 3 being an eventual killer. I’m encouraged that the Kings fought hard and had a chance but, man, 3-1 sure would have been sweet. Gotta take game 5 at home.
Kings lost poise with 1:59 remaining in the game.
Also, they should have expected that Fox will be swarmed by the defense on the last possession.
There should have been a play B on that situation.
Yep, and plan B should not have been HB, could tell right when it left his hands it was off.
Yeah, I said elsewhere that for this game at least I would have preferred Keegan as plan B to take the final shot even though it would have been a huge burden to put on a rookie.
I’m surprised there wasn’t a single screen on the Kings side for any person, just iso. Why not at least a feint at least?
Is there a reason we don’t see Monk, Mitchell or even Huerter bring the ball up; and run Fox off a double screen to get the ball in his hands at the top of the key?
I don’t understand bringing the ball up knowing a double team is coming. You are willingly giving in to what the opposition wants.
We don’t really know what the play was. It got blown up by good defense. Barnes was his only option out of that. I don’t mind at all that Barnes was the unintended plan B. I wouldn’t mind anyone on the floor taking the final shot on a set play. Just sucks that it was so out of the flow of what they wanted.
Agreed. Everyone in the building knew it was going to Fox so Kerr rightfully brought the double. I anticipated that, so I sure hope Coach Brown did as well, but it sure didn’t look like it.
Domantas Sabonis: I don’t want to go so far as to say Sabonis was bad.
Go ahead and go that far Mr. Wissinger. Domas was terrible, let’s just be honest about it. If he plays even average ball in the second half we win and are headed back home with a 3-1 lead. We know Domas is unathletic, but he’s going up against two unathletic bigs in the clown and Looney themselves, so for him to struggle so much around the rim on both ends is surprising. The makeup of the Duds (slow, unathletic) suggests Domas should be dominating this series as he doesn’t have to worry about players way more athletic than him, but he’s been underwhelming and today it was just glaring how bad he was.
Red Velvet now 3 of 21 from 3 in the series, feel free to show up, Keegan did.
Ultimately, we kind of expected going into the series for both teams to defend their home floor so not too surprising to be where we are. It’s win or go home on Wednesday as I don’t see us winning game 6 in an elimination game against a seasoned squad.
It felt like a tale of 2 halves for Domas. He was quite good in the 1st half & not much of a factor in the 2nd half.
Domas was below average . Credit Looney and Green , also they were below average so some credit to Domas .
Looney and Green don’t leave their feet on defense. That is what is throwing off Domas. His pump fakes and spins have little effect on their defense.
That’s an excellent point.
What’s frustrating (there are many things) for the team as a whole is that Dina’s is not capitalizing on the lack of defense on him far from the hoop. He should take some 3’s from the top of the arch. Set your feet, have a picnic, call your mom, do your taxes and then calmly take the shot you know you can make. I don’t like how they are letting the warriors dictate his game. Frustrating.
The Kings played well for most of this game. They just didn’t get the win. Brown’s been excellent this season, but I was perplexed that Keegan was on the bench for so much of crunch time when he played so well.
He was great on offense, but I also think he gets exposed easily on defense. His lateral speed is getting exposed by the small lineups of GS.
Most of the other Kings were at least as bad as him on defense.
All the stats are very close. The difference was that they made 22 free throws and we made 15.
The foul calls were also frustrating. Definitely not evenly officiated. Not claiming it was a conspiracy or that the kings couldn’t have overcome that but there seemed to be a clear difference on what the kings were getting called for as opposed to the anointed ones.
Doesn’t feel like much to harp about overall. Both teams played well, felt like Kings tried to kind of play for fouls the last two minutes. Not likely to get those late in game against Warriors. Flip of a coin. Came up short end.
Do it again in Game 5 and hope for different result.
Sabonis again in the ugly category in my book and Jalen Roses after game comment of Sabonis becoming a liability on offense rings too true. Fox has stepped up, Sabonis has stepped down. Hopefully people are seeing when Davion brings to the team. He’s stepped up as well. Hopefully some home cooking will get us back to form.
It is disconcerting to see how Sabonis, and Heurter, react to playoff basketball. Very poorly. Loose their heads .
said it before, but Sabonis just puts his head down throws up some crap at the rim and falls down. Seriously?
And if this is Huerter under pressure he’s not the guy they want in the future. Barnes has been atrocious shooting too. Rushed, not even close on the long ball.
On the good -Davion amd now Keegan have shown ability to play well in the playoffs. Monk too though he always plays like a spaz. Forces shots/TOs but also produces
Remember CWebb’s elbow jumper? Need Sabonis to knock some of those down. They all need to be aggressive and get to the rim or to the charity stripe. Hard fouls and that ball does not go up whenever Poole and Curry go to the rim.
Sabonis needs to fucking learn how to hit that mid range. Needs to spend hours on that.
Fans like myself had legit concerns about MM building around two stars whose games likely wouldn’t translate to playoff success. Fox has proved me wrong, Domas not so much. I’ve been disappointed in his play.
Yup. Looney was giving up enough space to fit in Asia while daring Sabonis to shoot. He was so far in the paint I was wondering why there were no 3 second calls. Looney was guarding no one while the Kings were attempting the DHO.
Solid point. The kings as an organization should comment on that in the media. I want to go back and watch again now and see if looney or green actually are making a 3 second violation. I bet it’s often.
I thought defensive 3 seconds revolves around doubling someone without the ball, for 3 seconds….not just guarding a zone, or sagging off a defender Pretty sure there’s nothing there
No. From my understanding, you can’t have both feet in the paint for more than 3 seconds unless you are guarding a player in the paint with the ball.
Correct.
It’s been pissing me off, sabonis could and the coaching staff should be telling him to take one dribble to the free throw line, write his thesis, check all the reoccurring charges on his credit card, cancel 4 subscriptions he forgot about and then calmly take the easy shot he knows he can make.
Going into this series, I was afraid a lot of games would be like this one. Kings play about as well as you can hope for, and still lose. Sabonis could have been better. Brown could have called time on that last possession when Fox got in too deep. But overall they played great. What I’m impressed by is that we played this well on the road after a really ugly game. If this series was called evenly, we’re up 3-1. Instead, we’ve won two games where nearly everyone outside Fox has played averaage or worse, and we’ve only played one clunker. As it is, Kings have 2 home games left and have proven they aren’t rattled by the Chase Center. Let’s rebrighten the beam. I never thought this series would be over in 5 games or less (except for a brief shining moment after game 2), but we still have some wins in us.
I think we can hope for more than what the Kings brought to the table today.
Yeah. They played rather meh for a large chunk of this game. If they play regular Kings basketball this would have been a win. Just tells me that warriors are definitely beatable at home, if we make a couple less mistakes…or if Huerter and/or could actually hit open deep looks.
Huerter hitting a few threes would change the offense dramatically. He has been bad. Even on wide-open jumpers he hasn’t gotten the job done. Not a good time for a slump.
The Warriors are clogging the middle and making the Kings a jump shooting team and the Kings are not shooting well.
So Barnes, who likes to take it to the hoop, and Domas, who is all low post have been less effective. On top of that, when they do bring it low, whistles are swallowed.
With the pace, I think they tired Steph, who played almost 44 min.
I am looking forward to the Game 5 adjustments
Davion for sure makes Curry work hard. I would like to see him pressure Curry full court as much as possible.
Domas needs to hit the free throw line jumper. Make Looney come away from the rim.
Whistles do seem to get swallowed a bit.
Despite the result, it was a great game to watch.
what a game! From the start, both teams showing a high caliber offense and mostly good switching on defense
Down the stretch, both teams show wonderful shot making (holy crap! Fox was remarkable from all over, including 3. Steph didn’t seem to miss – until … he did). Bone headed plays on both sides – the De’Aaron toss out of bounds, Steph doing”The CWebb circa Michigan) among others.
Another kudo: I thought Alex Len came in and again, did well. He’s showed out nicely.
Harrison Barnes had the shot, he took it. One of the Kings best shooters this season. He missed. Ball game. Just like Steph did in Game 1. Next.
If HB hits that shot, this goes down as the Steph brain fart game, as is it’ll long be forgotten.
HB hit some BIG shots before….no problem with that shot………
But curious if Green really fould Barnes and Sabonis in one late 4 Qtrs play
I LOVED Len’s hard foul on Draymond—put the hurt on him, as he so richly deserved.
Draymond started barking and Len completely ignored him. Acted like he didn’t hear him at all. So Draymond hat to start yelling at anyone who would listen.
I’m going to be “that” fan and say the replay looked to me like Curry caught Barnes’ hand/wrist on the shot attempt at the end.
It may be 2-2, but the onus is still on the Warriors to take one in enemy territory. Back to the Cowbell Kingdom on Wednesday.
Great effort. If I never hear Doris Burke call another Kings game it’ll still be too soon. That is all.
She must love the sound of her voice , goes on and on !
I don’t understand the love some people have for her. She just talks way too much. Plus her love for the Warriors was making me sick.
She used to be good but she seems to have gotten big headed. Kind of how Romo fell off this year calling NFL games.
The NBA has and has had a problem with the lack of talent calling games. Besides Breen and JVG, no one to write home about, and even those two are hard to listen to because of mark jackson.
I don’t have a problem with Barnes missing that shot. However, I get tired of the pass he always gets from the coaching staff for his no shows and bad defense. I know it’s probably impossible but I’d love to be able to swap him for a legitimate power forward that can actually get rebounds.
Sasha ? (He should be coming to Kings next season)
or Siakim ? (As Raptors very probably will trade him away)
I thought yelling and flexing on someone when right in there face was supposed to be a Technical foul…draymond did that several times and nothing.
Can’t do the Mutombo finger wave because of taunting, but yelling in someone’s face isn’t?
I thought the same. My Warrior fan father-in-law sitting in the same room with me even noticed that. I don’t think the refs wanted to give him that second tech. Simple as that.
I agree. Thought the same thing. Yelling in an opponents face like that is bull shit.
After all the national media complaining about his suspension he can probably shank someone now and won’t get ejected or suspended.
Probably the 1st time in the past 17 years of feeling devastation/heartbreak after a basketball game. While you don’t want to feel this way but this feeling means the Kings are playing relevant basketball, played their heart out but came up just short. Last time I have felt this level of devastation after a game was probably Game 2 against the Spurs without Artest back in college. Series ain’t over yet obviously but if they can hold on and win the series (which will probably go 7 now) this will just be a speed bump. Let get it done!
Fox should cut down his 3 pt attempts.
He had 11 today.
That’s a lot imho.
He is shooting a good percentage, hard to nitpick when he’s shooting so well if you ask me but I hear you. To your point, he did take at least two 3pt attempts that were not good shots (rushed and way too deep). Fox is the only reason they are in the game though so it’s tough to be truly critical.
Right you are. Who else but Murray was shooting threes?Not Huerter, not Barnes, not Lyles. Who else? And Sabonis needs to take more shots from the elbow and free throw line. Shot 2 last night. Made 1 three.
Totally agree, and I think that is the Warriors objective. He also took a ridiculous 31 FGA. I think Kerr’s game plan is to give Fox any jumper he wants, but don’t let anyone else beat them.
31 fg attempts by Fox!
That tells you too many possessions where teammates weren’t involved.
That’s not good basketball.
We have other shooters on the team.
Maybe we need more cutters to the lane or constant movement instead of standing still at the corners waiting for something to happen.
They scored…check notes…125 points. Offensive rating today equal to that of their #1 rating during the regular season.
Offense wasn’t their issue overall.
We really need a rim protector and a legit PF next season.
6’10 PF that can block shots and hit 3s. That would be really nice.
1) Hat tip to Alex Len still coming in and giving productive minutes in his limited role.
2) So great to see Keegan come to life. Let’s hope that trend continues Wednesday.
3) Fox is shooting too much, especially from 3. I don’t care if he is shooting a good average. His usage is ultra high and I feel it is affecting the overall team chemistry on the floor
4) Davion needs more minutes on Curry. He may need to start over Huerter at this point.
5) The Kings really need Barnes to snap out of his funk.
I like your suggestion. Mitchell should be on the floor for every minute that Steph is. It’s all about matchups and this matchup is a good one. It’s a luxury that arguably no other playoff team has accept the kings. It’s obvious how well Mitchell guards him. Better than anyone else I can really think of.
this point rings even more true, especially when Mitchell’s offense is rolling as it is now. Kerr started Poole instead of green. Brown should seriously consider Mitchell over heurter. If and hopefully when the kings advance and let’s say they face the other yellow California team, Mitchell won’t be as impactful because he can’t guard lebron the same way he can guard Curry. Mitchell is a weapon built for this particular war and he needs to be used more. Heurter off the bench could be good for him in this particular battle. If and hopefully when the kings advance that will likely change in the next battle.
I hope Coach Brown realizes this. Tweak the starting 5.
Put Huerter and Monk in the second unit.
I also like when Davion is aggressive to the rim and gets the open mid range jumper. That makes Steph have to play defense and thus tiring him out.
Also, Kings got to help Davion when that pick is coming to get Davion off of Curry.
yes…..It’s not the first time that no one come to help Davion……making him put extra effort to chase Curry
And Huerter.
I am not claiming any conspiracy or winning like the warriors did after game two. I’m simply making a point that I think should be noted. I can’t get it out of my mind. Still super frustrated about it. Len got called for a completely phantom foul call during a loose in the second half. Instead of a kings offensive rebound the refs turned it into a shooting foul that resulted in a basket for the warriors. Len wasn’t even close to the guy. Ridiculous.
And no fouls for Sabonis inside.
He appeared to get hit a lot and fly to the ground a decent amount of times.
Poole also tried to trip Domas when he got the steal and dished to Murray for the lay in…no call.
It’s pretty incredible for a Center to play 37 minutes and get zero free throws. The League wants this to go 7, so it will go 7.
That call was so egregious even Doris Burke said it was a bad call. That’s saying a lot because she seems to be in awe of all things GSW this series.
I know it was a loss but wow, what a game.
Despite some ridiculous shots and runs by the Warriors, the Kings kept battling and gave themselves a chance. That’s all you can do on the road against a good team. Barnes missed an open three to win it, I’ll take it.
Maybe I’m being a bit too optimistic here, because the Kings didn’t play as well as we’ve come to expect. That’s partially because of poor execution, but also because of the opponent. I feel like the experience of the Warriors really showed tonight, with multiple instances in which they calmly made the right play with the shot clock winding down. Something the Kings don’t always do (yet).
But again: the Kings fought and gave themselves a chance. Looking forward to game 5!
Malik would’ve made that shot in the right wing.
This is the challenge of playing the Warriors. They have two guys that can take BAD shots that go in consistently in Steph and Thompson. You kind of have to live with it and just play better basketball.
Just play tight defense and hope the crazy 3s they take don’t go in. As for the open 3s, that is a whole different thing. Too many of those.
Monk appears to take some heat check shots when he is ice cold. It’s really frustrating as they aren’t in the flow of the offense and they are bad shots. I know that is his game, and when it works it gets a pass, but damn it’s hard to watch that in games where every possession means so much.
Alternate take on Sabonis alert:
I think this is less about Sabonis being a different player in the playoffs and more about an opposing team that has determined that over a seven game series, the DHO is what they are going to try to take away. I would say that the Dubs have spent more effort trying to take away the DHO than they have trying to stymie De’Aaron Fox. I’m not sure if the Clippers or Lakers or even the Grizzlies have the personnel and ability to disrupt the DHO in the manner that the Warriors have.
It has surely given Mike Brown and Sabonis some data as to what to work on moving forward. But as I watch these games, it seems to me that the focus of the Warriors defense is to take away Sabonis as a facilitator, and when that is an opposing team’s primary focus, it can be difficult to overcome. Sabonis has still managed to pull down almost 26% of the Kings’ rebounds. Fox is next at around 13%.
Should the Kings get by the Warriors, it will be interesting to see how the Lakers or Griz approach the Kings in the 2nd round.
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