Stephen Curry says Warriors understood ‘consequences’ of Game 3. Can Kings do same in Game 4?
READ MORE
Sacramento Kings in the Playoffs
Kings playoffs have arrived! Here’s everything you need to know.
Expand All
The Kings didn’t respond well to the sound and fury they faced in Game 3 of their first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors went home trailing 2-0 in the best-of-seven series with a sense of urgency and desperation, knowing no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in the NBA playoffs. With so much uncertainty regarding the future of general manager Bob Myers and the incendiary Draymond Green, Warriors star Stephen Curry said his team understood the immediate and lasting consequences of another loss.
“I mean, pretty bluntly, if we lost this game, it’s pretty much over,” Curry said. “You’ve got to understand the moment and we gave ourselves life. Biggest thing is, we’ve been in the situation where momentum doesn’t necessarily carry over from game to game unless you execute at the same level, so it’s just one game, but it was a big game for sure.”
The stakes will be even higher when the Kings and Warriors clash again in Game 4 on Sunday at Chase Center in San Francisco. The Warriors can even the series. The Kings can take a commanding 3-1 lead going into Game 5 in Sacramento.
“For them to win this series, they’ve got to go in our building and win a game, and we feel like for us to win the series we’ve got to go in their building and win a game,” Kings guard Kevin Huerter said. “Two-two looks different than 3-1. For us to go home with a chance to close it out versus we’re going home trying to extend the series is a lot different, so hopefully we come with the right mindset and desperation they played with in Game 3.”
Green was serving a one-game suspension for stomping on Domantas Sabonis’ chest in Game 2. Gary Payton II was out due to illness. The Kings had a chance to push the Warriors to the brink of elimination while they were shorthanded. Instead, the Warriors won with big contributions from Curry, Kevon Looney, Moses Moody and Donte DiVincenzo. Golden State held Sacramento to 38% shooting, forced 15 turnovers, outscored the Kings 22-7 in points off turnovers and grabbed 18 offensive rebounds to amass a 24-12 advantage in second-chance points.
“This is what we’re supposed to do,” Curry said. “I mean, being down those two guys (Green and Payton) who bring so much to our defensive side and just our identity as a whole, we had to have guys step up, so we obviously understand the consequences if we lost tonight, and nobody wanted to feel that.”
Curry was asked if the Warriors felt they had something to prove following 48 hours of controversy and speculation that their dynasty might be in peril.
“You bottle up all that noise and the potential distractions of Draymond being out, what the narrative is or whatever,” Curry said. “You bottle it up and all it is is a sense of pride of who we are capable of being and coming in with the right energy to kind of prove that we can create some life for ourselves.”
Kings coach Mike Brown anticipated that kind of response from the Warriors, who are seeking their fifth NBA championship in nine years.
“They’re a championship team and they had their backs against the wall,” Brown said. “They know how tough it would have been to go down 3-0, not just from the standpoint that they’ve got to win four in a row, but there’s a psychological aspect, too, that you have to deal with if you go down 3-0, so they were desperate and their desperation showed on both sides of the ball.
“We haven’t experienced that and we weren’t desperate. Watching the game, you could see it. We didn’t play our best basketball and it ultimately led to us losing the game.”
A sellout crowd of 18,064 booed Sabonis every time he touched the ball in Game 3. He will likely receive the same treatment with Green returning for Game 4.
“It was crazy,” Sabonis said. “They have a great fanbase. They definitely made it tough on us today and we should have been more prepared for that.”
Kings forward Harrison Barnes talked about what the Kings must do differently with another hostile environment awaiting them Sunday.
“Obviously, we knew it was going to be a lively crowd,” Barnes said. “I just think their physicality, we have to meet force with force, and, like I said, in Game 1 and Game 2, we did that. I think at the beginning of the game, we didn’t necessarily run our offense. We didn’t execute our offense as crisp as we normally do. Defensively, they didn’t really feel us, and they were just running around getting wide-open shots. Those are things we just have to be better at in Game 4.”
This story was originally published April 22, 2023 at 2:25 PM.
