SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Keegan Murray scored 32 points, De’Aaron Fox added 24 points and the Sacramento Kings survived the play-in tournament, defeating the Golden State Warriors with a 118-94 win on Tuesday night.
Sacramento, which ended an NBA-record 16-year playoff drought last season, advances to play in New Orleans on Friday night with a chance to return to the playoffs as the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.
The Kings avenged their Game 7 loss at home to Golden State in last year’s first round with cleaner play and faster loose balls against the veteran Warriors for the franchise’s most important victory in 20 years. It became one of the
With the loss, Golden State missed the playoffs for the third time in the past five seasons, including two losses in the play-in tournament.
The Warriors committed 16 turnovers, allowed 15 offensive rebounds, took too many open 3-point shots and looked nothing like the dynasty team that won four titles from 2015 to 2022. .
Klay Thompson missed all 10 shots from the field, and Stephen Curry didn’t get nearly enough help. Curry finished with 22 points, but was trailed by Keon Ellis for most of the game.
The undrafted Ellis, who was on a two-way contract until February, added 15 points with strong defense.
For Sacramento, Harrison Barnes had 17 points and Domantas Sabonis had 16 points and 12 rebounds.
The matchup between the Northern California rivals, who are less than 100 miles apart, was a rematch of last year’s series, which Golden State won. Curry scored 50 points in Game 7.
Although it wasn’t quite up to the level of last year’s matchup, when Sacramento fans celebrated the end of a record-long playoff drought, the crowd was buzzing from the start.
Murray hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter, and the Kings extended their lead to 16 points in the second quarter, before the Warriors fought back behind the bench and narrowed the lead to 54-50 at halftime.
Golden State closed to a one-point lead early in the third quarter, but Sacramento won 19-5, led by two 3-pointers from Ellis, and restored the lead to 15 points.
The Kings never threatened in the fourth quarter, and there were cheers of “Light the beam!” The last few minutes.
next
Kings: Sacramento is 0-5 in the regular season against New Orleans and hasn’t won more than six games against the same opponent in a season since going 0-8 against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1983-84 regular season. play off.
