Warriors on possible Kings playoff series: ‘That’d be special for Northern California’
Weeks ago, it looked like Friday’s game between the Kings and Golden State Warriors could have been a high-intensity regular-season bout with real playoff stakes. Instead, with the third seed in the Western Conference all but wrapped up, Sacramento decided to rest All-Stars De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis along with key rotation players Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk.
The result was a 119-97 win for the Warriors over a Kings team that played lineups which haven’t been used all year, with players accustomed to garbage time, zapping the luster of a Northern California showdown that could have been.
But it did help set the stage for a possible meeting in the first round of the upcoming playoffs. Because, with the win, the Warriors took a step toward earning the No. 6 seed, which would mean the first Interstate 80 postseason series in history. The two teams have never made the playoffs in the same season. The Kings played their first season in Sacramento in 1985-86.
“That’d be special for Northern California,” Warriors guard Klay Thompson said. “Kings got great fans. We got great fans. Mike B’s (Brown) got them boys playing together and hard. That would be really cool just for Northern California, which is a basketball hotbed at the moment. And it would be nice for the travel. That’d be very nice.”
Golden State needs to win Sunday against the tanking Portland Trailblazers while the Los Angeles Clippers need to beat the same Blazers and then the Phoenix Suns — who will presumably continue sitting key rotation players after locking up the No. 4 seed — to clinch the No. 5 seed.
There are a couple caveats that could get in the way of a Kings-Warriors series, of course. The Clippers could decide they would rather play the Kings in Round 1 than the Suns, who have won all five of their games with Kevin Durant in the lineup after adding him at the trade deadline. Los Angeles could rest key players and split one of their final two games if they’d prefer the sixth seed, which could also mean avoiding the side of the bracket with the No. 1 seed Denver Nuggets in Round 2.
The risk for any of the teams battling for the Nos. 5 and 6 seeds is that losing might lead to the play-in tournament, putting their postseason lives at risk altogether. The Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans are still in play for the last the two automatic playoff berths. Essentially, seeds 5 through 8 are still up in the air through the final day of the regular season Sunday.
“I think it’d be exciting. It’d be a fun matchup,” Warriors center Kevon Looney said of a Kings-Warriors series. “Mike’s a great coach. They got a lot of talent over there. Every time we play them, it’s been a pretty entertaining, up-and-down game. So I know the playoffs will be even more intense. We’re just excited to get in the playoffs and see who we play.”
The Kings went 1-2 against the Warriors before Friday’s game. They played their first two Oct. 23 and Nov. 11 in San Francisco, and then again Nov. 13 in Sacramento, the lone Kings’ win against Golden State this season.
Brown, of course, joined the Kings after spending six seasons on the Warriors sidelines as a lead assistant under Steve Kerr. Brown has credited Kerr for a number of things he’s taken into his job with Sacramento — namely his communication skills and scheduling. Practicing in road cities after flights in order to get into rhythm away from home is among the reasons the Kings have the best road record in the Western Conference at 25-15.
“Mike has done a brilliant job. He’s hands down the Coach of the Year this year,” Kerr said. “To take the team from the beginning of the season, where they were, to where they are now, just the energy and the excitement around the team, the buzz in the city.
“But the way they’ve played, the style with which they’ve played, Mike’s just crushed it. He’s put them in a great position to succeed and they’ve had a great year. We’re all really thrilled for Mike, for Leandro (Barbosa), Harrison Barnes. We got a lot of connections in that locker room over there. So we’re happy for them, but we gotta go beat them tonight, and who knows what’s going to happen in the playoffs. There’s a lot to be determined. We could play them, but we may play somebody else.”
The Warriors have had a rocky regular season that’s disappointing for a defending champion. Friday’s win was just their 10th on the road all year. Their road record is the worst in the West, ahead of only the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets, who spent the campaign positioning for the top pick in the upcoming NBA draft.
Still, despite their road struggles, Brown believes the Warriors can play like they did last season when they backed into the playoffs, losing 16 of 23 during a stretch in February and March, before eventually winning the title.
“Their staff is a championship level staff. Veterans, All-NBA players, All-Defensive player, Hall of Famers,” Brown said. “You go through slides like that throughout the course of your run. At the end of the day, they’re still champions and still know what it takes to win. The regular season, at times, it doesn’t always matter. It’s what they can muster in the postseason, which, because of the experience they have, they just got just as good a chance as anybody.”
