Stephen Curry’s record-breaking 50 points lead Warriors over Kings in Game 7 NBA playoffs win
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Stephen Curry turned in a historic performance to lead the Golden State Warriors to a 120-100 victory over the Kings in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series Sunday at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento.
Curry finished with 50 points, eight rebounds and six assists for the Warriors, who will advance to play the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals. Curry made 20 of 38 field-goal attempts and 7 of 18 from 3-point range, producing the first 50-point playoff game of his career and the most points ever scored in a Game 7.
“Steph was elite,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “He did what he was supposed to do. He put those guys on his back and said, ‘I’m going to make sure we’re not losing tonight.”
A sellout crowd of 18,253 chanted “SAC-RA-MENTO” to the bitter end as the final seconds rolled off the clock. The Kings bowed out of the playoffs after pushing the Warriors to seven games in their first postseason appearance since 2006.
“We just had a lot of fun this whole year with the city, the fans, the arena, and especially at home, we definitely had a chance to do something special, and to not get it done stings right now,” Kings center Domantas Sabonis said. “We accomplished a lot. This is just the first step moving forward. There’s a lot more to come and we have to use that as motivation.”
Sabonis had 22 points, eight rebounds and seven assists for the Kings. De’Aaron Fox had 16 points and six assists with five turnovers. Malik Monk and Terence Davis came off the bench to score 14 points apiece.
Andrew Wiggins had 17 points and seven rebounds for Golden State. Warriors center Kevon Looney finished with 11 points and 21 rebounds, his third 20-rebound game of the series. Looney had 10 offensive rebounds to help the Warriors outscore the Kings 24-16 on second-chance points.
“Kevon Looney was unbelievable,” Brown said. “I mean, he was unbelievable. To have 10 offensive rebounds, you’ve got to give him credit.”
Kings guard Kevin Huerter drilled a 3-pointer behind a screen from Sabonis on Sacramento’s opening possession. That seemed like a good sign for Huerter — who shot 16% from 3-point range over the first five games before coming alive in Game 6 — but Huerter finished 2 of 9 from the field and 1 of 6 from beyond the arc.
The Kings led by five 90 seconds into the game, but they found themselves trailing 18-12 after going 5 of 13 from the field and 1 of 5 from 3-point range over the first six minutes. Sacramento went to a three-guard lineup late in the first quarter with Fox, Monk, Davis, Trey Lyles and Sabonis.
Davis immediately knocked down two 3-pointers to tie the game. Fox and Lyles followed with 3s of their own to give the Kings a 31-30 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Sacramento started the second quarter with a four-guard small-ball lineup, putting Fox, Monk, Davis, Huerter and Lyles on the floor together.
The Kings gave the Warriors trouble with Lyles as a small-ball center in their 118-99 victory in Game 6, but this was the first time they went to a four-guard look. When the Warriors took a timeout to discuss what they were seeing, the Kings countered by subbing Sabonis back into the game in a traditional lineup with Lyles at power forward.
Sacramento went up 47-42 on a basket by Sabonis with 6:01 to play in the half. Golden State tied the game following a 3-pointer and a floater from Curry, but the Kings reclaimed the lead on another 3-pointer by Davis.
At that point, the pace of the game seemed to be taking a toll on Looney, who averaged 14.2 rebounds over the first six games of the series with two 20-rebound performances. Looney labored up and down the floor and later grimaced while reaching for his left foot during a dead-ball situation.
The game was tied following a basket by Wiggins with 3:34 remaining, but baskets by Fox and Sabonis gave them a 58-56 lead at the halftime break. The Kings made good on their promise to push the pace, firing up 50 shots in the first half after taking 99 in Game 6.
The Warriors took a 59-58 lead on a 3-pointer by Curry at the start of the second half. They went up 69-62 on a layup by Curry at the 7:50 mark in the third quarter, prompting the Kings to call a timeout to stop a 13-4 run.
Kings rookie Keegan Murray got a basket coming out of the timeout, but the Kings couldn’t keep Golden State off the glass. The Warriors grabbed 13 offensive rebounds over the first eight minutes of the third period after finishing the first half with two. They had three offensive rebounds on one possession, which ended with Looney scoring on a putback to give Golden State a 73-64 lead.
“They came out in the third quarter and they were just more aggressive,” Sabonis said. “They were shooting 3s. They were getting long rebounds. They were grabbing all those 50-50 balls and that gave them a ton of more possessions, and against a team like that, that’s tough.”
The avalanche of offensive rebounds made the Kings work twice as hard on defense while stalling their transition game, foiling Sacramento’s plan to wear the Warriors down with a fast-paced game.
The crowd grew restless when a corner 3-pointer from Jordan Poole put the Warriors up by 12, but the Kings cut the deficit in half on a series of driving layups by Fox, Monk and Murray. They got within five on two free throws by Fox a moment later, but a four-point play by Thompson with 1.4 seconds remaining put the Warriors up 91-81.
“They came out of the half and they responded like champions,” Fox said. “They got to every loose ball. They got every 50-50 ball. They got a lot of offensive rebounds. They did everything that you need to do to win a game in the third quarter and I feel like that’s really where we lost it.”
The Kings got a number of stops early in the fourth quarter, but they couldn’t buy a basket, going scoreless over the first 3:30. The Warriors took a 95-81 lead on a layup by Curry. They went up by 17 on a 3-pointer by Curry and extended the lead to 21 on a floater, again by Curry.
“He’s one of the greatest players ever,” Fox said. “He makes tough shots. He gets in the lane. He’s able to finish. He did everything for them tonight, and once he got it going, it was tough to slow him down.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2023 at 3:23 PM.
