‘Great matchup’: Kings face defending NBA champion Warriors in first round of playoffs
Northern California will tremble with excitement and anticipation this week as the Kings prepare to face the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
The matchups were set Sunday as the NBA concluded the regular season with a full slate of games. The third-seeded Kings will play Game 1 of their seven-game series against the sixth-seeded Warriors at 5:30 p.m. Saturday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
“Man, it’s going to be a great matchup,” Kings forward Harrison Barnes told The Sacramento Bee following a 109-95 loss to the Denver Nuggets on Sunday at Ball Arena. “We play similar styles, so it’s going to be an up-and-down series.”
The Kings and Warriors have never met in the playoffs before. In fact, this is the first time they’ve been in the playoffs at the same time.
The Kings will have homecourt advantage in the first round, so Games 1 and 2 will be played in Sacramento. Games 3 and 4 will be played at Chase Center in San Francisco. The last three games of the series, if necessary, will be played at alternating sites with Games 5 and 7 in Sacramento.
“I think for us it’s a matter of just focusing on a lot of things that we talked about this season, but it’s going to be a great experience for our group for us to up our level of physicality and up our attention to detail as we start our journey in the postseason,” Barnes said.
The Kings (48-34) are making their first playoff appearance since 2006 after ending the longest postseason drought in NBA history after 16 consecutive losing seasons. They enter the postseason as the Pacific Division champions after staging a remarkable turnaround under first-year coach Mike Brown, who spent the past six seasons as Steve Kerr’s lead assistant with the Warriors.
Brown downplayed the significance of facing his former team.
“Short commute, that’s about it,” Brown said. “I’ve still got a place down there, so I might swing by and check on that. That’s about it. It doesn’t matter who we play, just like I’m sure with the rest of the teams, it really doesn’t matter who they play.”
The Warriors (44-38) are the defending NBA champions after winning their fourth title in seven years last season. They had to win five of their last six games to avoid the play-in tournament in a wild West race that was tightly bunched behind the No. 1 Denver Nuggets, No. 2 Memphis Grizzlies and No. 3 Kings. The Warriors have won eight of 10 dating back to March 20.
The Kings went 1-3 against the Warriors this season, including a 119-97 loss on Friday in Sacramento. The Kings rested starters De’Aaron Fox, Kevin Huerter and Domantas Sabonis in that game. The intensity will be considerably higher in Game 1 on Saturday.
“We’ve just got to prepare now,” Sabonis said. “We have a week to get ready and we know we have homecourt advantage, so that’s definitely big. We’re going to prepare and do the best we can to be as ready as possible.”
This story was originally published April 9, 2023 at 6:12 PM.
