Kings-Warriors: De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk lead crucial road win, force Game 7 in Sacramento
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Sacramento Kings in the Playoffs
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The Kings huddled together outside their locker room moments before entering a hostile environment for Game 6 of their first-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors.
Trailing the best-of-seven series 3-2 and facing elimination for the first time, the mission was clear.
“Let’s leave it all out on the floor and take this thing back to Sac,” Kings forward Harrison Barnes said. “Win on three. 1-2-3 WIN.”
Mission accomplished.
Malik Monk came off the bench to score 28 points and De’Aaron Fox turned in another valiant performance, leading the Kings to a 118-99 victory over the Warriors in Game 6 on Friday night at Chase Center in San Francisco.
Game 7 will be played at 12:30 p.m. Sunday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. The Kings will host a Game 7 for the third time in franchise history and the second time in the Sacramento era.
“It’s just a great opportunity for us as a team,” Kings guard Kevin Huerter said. “We came in here with one goal in mind and that was to get back on the bus and go back to Sac. We fought all year to be in this position to play Game 7 on our home court and we’ll bring it.”
Fox had 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting with 11 assists, four rebounds and three steals despite playing with an avulsion fracture of the left index finger on his shooting hand. He led his team to a crucial road win over a Warriors team that went 33-8 at home this season.
“We wanted to hit first, hit second, hit third, hit last, and I think we did a good job of that tonight,” Fox said. “I think, especially with our pace, we were in control basically the entire game tonight. From start to finish, I feel like this is probably the best game that we’ve played this year.”
Keegan Murray had 15 points and 12 rebounds for Sacramento. Trey Lyles added 12 points and 10 rebounds while reprising his role as a small-ball center as the Kings looked to push the pace against the aging Warriors.
“They were a little tired,” Monk said. “We were a little younger than they are, so we knew we could take advantage of that, so we’re going to try to do the same thing Sunday.”
Stephen Curry scored 29 points for the Warriors, but he went 9 of 21 from the field and committed five turnovers. Klay Thompson had 22 points, going 8 of 20 from the field and 2 of 9 from 3-point range.
The Kings outscored the Warriors 44-36 on points in the paint, 18-8 on second-chance points, 18-9 on fastbreak points and 52-21 in points off the bench.
“I thought the Kings were the aggressor from the start, you know, putting a lot of pressure on us defensively, and we didn’t execute early in the game,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “There were four or five plays early where we just took quick shots or didn’t pass the ball to the open guy, and I think at halftime we had eight assists. We just never got our rhythm. We never got into our game.”
The Kings jumped out to an 8-0 lead while the Warriors went 0 of 4 from the field to start the game. Barnes threw down a dunk with authority, Domantas Sabonis drained a 3-pointer from the corner and Murray hit a 3 from the same spot, prompting Kerr to take an early timeout.
Golden State came back to take an 18-17 lead on a free throw by Donte DiVincenzo. A late 3-pointer by DiVincenzo gave the Warriors a 25-23 lead at the end of the first period.
Draymond Green came off the bench for the third game in a row after serving a one-game suspension for stomping on Sabonis’ chest earlier in the series. Green received a huge ovation from the home crowd when he checked in for the first time at 6:26 mark. It wasn’t long before he was barking at officials after picking up two fouls in his first minute of action.
The Kings went with a small-ball lineup late in the first quarter with Fox, Monk, Terence Davis, Murray and Lyles.
The Kings shot 31% from the field and 23.1% from 3-point in the opening period, but they outrebounded the Warriors 20-10 with a 9-1 advantage in offensive rebounds.
Lyles and Monk provided a nice spark off the bench for Sacramento. Lyles hit a 3-pointer to give the Kings a 28-25 lead early in the second quarter. He later threw down an emphatic dunk to put them up 43-35.
Kings coach Mike Brown brought Sabonis back into the game midway through the second quarter. Sabonis went down after taking a shot to the face from Warriors center Kevon Looney on a jump ball. While going up for the ball, Looney struck Sabonis in the face with his right elbow, causing a knot to form near Sabonis’ left eye.
The Kings took their largest lead of the half when Davis made a 3-pointer to put them up 49-38. The Warriors cut the deficit to six on a couple of occasions and trailed by seven at the half.
The Kings shot 40.7% from the field and 33.3% from 3-point range in the first half. The Warriors shot 35.6% overall and 27.8% from beyond the arc. Sacramento had a 32-20 rebounding advantage and outscored Golden State 30-16 on points in the paint, but the Warriors got to the free-throw line far more often, going 14 of 19 at the stripe while the Kings went 7 of 9.
The Kings went up by 10 early in the second half, but the Warriors came back to cut the deficit to five after Sabonis left the game due to foul trouble. Sabonis picked up his third and fourth fouls in a span of 15 seconds early in the third quarter. He remained in the game but had to go to the bench after getting whistled for his fifth foul with 6:23 to play in the third.
The Warriors were down 75-70 following two free throws by Thompson at the 4:42 mark, but Monk made three 3-pointers in a span of 1:37 to help the Kings go up 88-75. They went into the fourth quarter with a 90-80 lead, needing just 12 more good minutes to force a Game 7.
The Warriors got within seven on a 3-pointer by Curry early in the fourth, but the Kings quickly pushed the lead back to double digits. They went up 102-89 on a 3-pointer by Fox and led 109-96 following a long ball from Huerter.
Huerter, who shot 16% from long distance over the first five games of the series, made another 3-pointer to give the Kings a 112-96 lead with 4:58 remaining. That’s when Warriors fans started heading for the exits.
Huerter, who made two of his three fourth-quarter 3-point attempts, acknowledged a sense of relief after the game.
“You’ve got no idea,” Huerter said. “It feels good. You’ve just got to see the ball go in sometimes. In the second half, guys continued to find me and coaches continued to tell me to keep shooting, so hopefully it carries over to the next game.”
This story was originally published April 28, 2023 at 7:54 PM.
