Malik Monk, a veteran of the Sacramento Kings, urged his teammates in the locker room to lock in before Game 6 of the ongoing playoffs of the NBA against the Golden State Warriors on Friday night.
Malik Monk, a veteran of the Sacramento Kings, urged his teammates in the locker room to lock in before Game 6 of the ongoing playoffs of the NBA against the Golden State Warriors on Friday night. He said the starters needed to get away to a strong start, live up to the hype, and avoid making mistakes. As the Kings sprinted onto the floor of the Chase Centre, Harrison Barnes yelled, “Leave it all on the floor and let’s bring this back to Sac.”
Steve Kerr, the coach of the Golden State Warriors, even cautioned his team to expect a different level from the Kings. Kerr said they would be more relaxed. Their play would be more aggressive. They would be manipulating a lot more feelings. Even after Kerr’s warnings, the Warriors were somehow caught off guard as Klay Thompson remarked that they were not match ready . Following a 118-99 defeat in which Golden State was defeated, the Warriors were incapable of winning the first round of the Western Conference. Stephen Curry said “We just had a lot of kind of mental errors, and they took advantage of it and grabbed momentum early”.
Early on, the Warriors established a gloomy tone for their game. They started sloppily, forcing blocks and strips from Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis into several empty possessions. They made nine mistakes in the first half alone, which allowed Sacramento to score 15 points. Sacramento defeated Golden State Warriors 30-16 in the point and shot 40.7% from the field to a season-low of 27.8% in the first half itself.
With 32 rebounds out of which 11 of them were offensive boards Kings dominated the boards. However, Golden State Warriors came from the back to trail only by seven points at the break. For the Warriors, the form of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, who scored a combined 51 points is perhaps the only glimmer of hope. The remainder of the group had only 22 points. However, the bar of expectation was a bit high from their star players and everyone thought that they would do their usual back at halftime and find new life, as they have done so frequently throughout this season and series. This confidence comes from possibly a cameo from the renowned “Game 6 Klay.” Curry would take charge immediately, as he has done countless times before.
The second half witnessed the awakening of Jordan Poole from his slumber. The belief was that the Warriors’ playoff expertise would shine through. Coach Mike Brown of the Kings had warned his young team about the Warriors’ reliance on their championship DNA. It didn’t, though. According to Kevon Looney – “I thought we played hard but we didn’t play smart. We didn’t execute our game plan. We know what we needed to do to win. All the small things, getting back in transition, the box-outs, the turnovers, different things like that, we didn’t execute.” The Warriors have improved their defence against De’Aaron Fox of Sacramento over the last two games. First, during Game 4’s halftime, Draymond Green was switched to him. Gary Payton II silenced Fox in the second quarter of Game 5.
Sacramento went small in Game 6, and this time the Warriors seemed unwilling to respond to their opponent’s adjustments. Fox had 10 of 18 shots for 26 points while making 11 assists. Sacramento’s 56 points were scored or assisted by him. Monk led the Kings in scoring with 28 points, giving them a tremendous boost off the bench. Despite finishing with 29 points from Curry and 22 from Thompson, the team’s field goal percentage of 37.6% was the second-lowest in any playoff game under Kerr. The Warriors’ biggest home defeat with a chance to clinch the title and the Kings’ biggest victory against elimination were both by 19 points.
Golden State Warriors missed the chance to avoid the road, which has been a problem for them the entire season, but after winning Game 5, which Thompson dubbed as their best performance of the year, they are confident they can play with the execution required to secure their fourth victory.
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