Kings hoping valuable lessons can translate to Game 6 against Warriors in San Francisco
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Sacramento Kings in the Playoffs
Kings playoffs have arrived! Here’s everything you need to know.
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Win or lose, a playoff series against the defending champion Golden State Warriors was always going to provide the Kings with valuable lessons they can use going forward as they to build on their first playoff berth in 16 seasons.
The Warriors’ triumvirate of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have the Kings on the ropes ahead of Game 6 with the series shifting back to San Francisco on Friday. Golden State has taken charge of the series, winning three straight games after dropping the first two in Sacramento.
“Every little mistake, they’re going to bite you with. Every little mistake,” Kings guard Malik Monk said at practice Thursday. “You go under (a screen), Steph’s gonna hit a 3. You go under, Klay gonna hit a 3. You bite too much, Draymond’s gonna keep it and score a layup. So just every little mistake, they’re going to make you pay for.”
A loss for the Kings in Game 6 would end their season while a win would force a Game 7 at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Golden 1 Center. But getting to that point means learning from what the series has presented Sacramento through five games.
“Just all the little things, right?” said Kings forward Harrison Barnes, Sacramento’s most experienced player. “Obviously, we can go through it and look at the last three games. We can look at the fourth quarter and the last five minutes and things like that. But there’s so many other areas throughout the majority of each of those games that we can learn from and what got us in those situations.”
The Kings over the three straight losses have pointed to numerous issues that plagued them. In the lopsided Game 3 defeat, it was the inability to match Golden State’s desperation after the Warriors fell behind 2-0. In Game 4, is was late-game execution on the offensive end. Game 5 in Sacramento was about the cold 3-point shooting after the first quarter, and an inability to stop the Warriors from parading to the rim as they shot 67% on 2-point shots.
“I think for us, it’s realizing how close we are to where we want to be, but also just lock into the mental errors,” Barnes said. “They’re going to make tough shots. They’re going to make tough plays. That’s just a part of who they are, but that’s also a part of playoff basketball. You look at anybody who’s playing in the league right now, right? You see great performances, but can we withstand that and continue to do what we do?”
Head coach Mike Brown was presented with his second Coach of the Year trophy ahead of Wednesday’s game and reflected on where his team stands.
“I think this team is a really, really good team. What the ceiling is, I’m not sure yet, but we’re in the process of finding out,” Brown said. “But I do think that we can play better. ... It’s not a knock, because you can still compete but not play as good as you feel you’re capable of, and I think our guys are trying to compete.”
The other things he’s learned about his group through five playoff games?
“The first one is we’re more than capable of being a physical defensive team when we want to. That’s the biggest thing,” Brown said. “On top of that, the sense of urgency is being shown for closer to 48 minutes than what it was at any time during the regular season. And our ability to compete no matter what the score is, you know, you saw some of our resiliency during the regular season, and now to see it in this environment versus a championship-laden team is also a good thing.”
Reaching their ceiling will mean improving defensively. The Kings rank ninth among the 16 playoff teams in defense after finishing 24th in efficiency during the regular season. In the playoffs they’ve slowed the Warriors’ 3-point shooting — Golden State ranked second in the NBA hitting 38.5% of their shots from distance in the regular season, but they’re 10th at 33% in the series.
If Sacramento has an advantage heading into Game 6, it’s their youth and fresh legs. There will be just one day between Games 5 and 6, and one day between Games 6 and 7, if the Kings win Friday, which could stress the Warriors’ veteran roster. Curry, in particular, is averaging 40 minutes per game this series after turning 35 in March. He hasn’t averaged more than 40.0 in the playoffs since his first two trips in 2013 and 2014, when he was 24 and 25 years old.
Curry played 42:42 in Game 4 and 41:58 in Game 5.
“For us, we like the quick turnaround,” Brown said. “We want to play as soon as we can. We got what we want, so we’ll see if we can go get it done.”
This story was originally published April 28, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
