SACRAMENTO – It certainly didn’t matter to the fans in and around Golden1 Center Tuesday night that the game between the Sacramento Kings and the Golden State Warriors was technically a disappointment for both organizations.
Sure, neither team expected to be in a 9/10, single elimination play-in game a month ago, let alone back in October when the season first tipped off. But as Mike Brown said after Sunday’s regular season finale, “any time you can play after your last regular season game, it’s a positive.”
The sellout crowd was certainly enthused during introductions, even as a scattering of Warriors fans tried to have their voices heard amongst the fired up Sacramento crowd. There were certainly cheers when Draymond Green connected on a three for the game’s first points, but when Keegan Murray drained two of his next three attempts from beyond the arc, the enthusiasm shifted back to the home team.
Fans had another reason to cheer when Mike Brown won an early challenge, and when Murray hit his third three of the first quarter just moments later you thought the roof might come off the arena all together. After Keegan scored 11 of the Kings first 13 points, De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis began to assert themselves. The trio combined for all but five of Sacramento’s 31 first quarter points, but the bench made their presence known as well, highlighted by a Trey Lyles corner three and a pair of Davion Mitchell offensive rebounds that led to Murray’s fourth three pointer of the first frame.
The first play of the game was for Murray, and he stayed aggressive throughout.
“The first play was for me, and we kind of just kept going to that early in the game,” Murray said. “I just kept being aggressive, even when I was missing shots. When my shot is falling, they just always seem to find me.”
Fox was more coy in his evaluation.
“We ask Keegan to be aggressive all the time, Fox said. “Obviously Keegan is a different guy, you all see that. We tell Keegan not to smile because every time he smiles, he misses.”
Holding a 31-22 lead after the first 12 minutes, Sacramento continued to turn up the defensive intensity in the second quarter. The teams combined to miss their first eight attempts from the field, a streak finally broken by Harrison Barnes, who connected from the corner for a three that forced a Steve Kerr timeout.
Down 13, the Warriors started to make a run. Momentum began to shift after Lyles was somehow called for a…
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