SACRAMENTO, California – Keegan Murray scored 32 points, De’Aaron Fox added 24 and the Sacramento Kings stayed alive in the play-in tournament, eliminating the Golden State Warriors with a 118-94 victory on Tuesday night.
Sacramento advanced to play at New Orleans on Friday night with a chance to return to the playoffs as the eighth seed in the Western Conference after breaking a 16-year NBA playoff drought record last season.
The Kings avenged their Game 7 loss at home to Golden State in last year’s first round by playing cleaner and being quicker to drop balls against the older Warriors in what was one of the franchise’s most important victories. in two decades.
The loss kept Golden State out of the playoffs for the third time in the last five seasons, including two eliminations in the play-in tournament. The Warriors committed 16 turnovers, gave up 15 offensive rebounds and plenty of open 3-pointers, looking nothing like the dynastic team that won four titles from 2015-22.
Klay Thompson missed all 10 shots from the field and Stephen Curry didn’t get enough help. Curry finished with 22 points but was shadowed for much of the game by Keon Ellis.
The undrafted Ellis, who had a two-way contract until February, scored 15 points with his strong defense. Harrison Barnes scored 17 and Domantas Sabonis had 16 points and 12 rebounds for Sacramento.
The meeting between the Northern California rivals separated by less than 100 miles was a rematch of last year’s series won by Golden State. Curry scored 50 points in the seventh game.
The crowd was loud from the start, even if the energy didn’t reach the level of last year’s game, when Sacramento fans celebrated the end of their record playoff drought.
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 rallied behind their bench to cut the deficit to 54-50 at halftime.
Golden State got within a goal early in the third quarter before Sacramento responded with a 19-5 victory, secured by a pair of 3-pointers from Ellis, to push the lead back to 15 points.
The Kings were never threatened in the fourth quarter, which prompted chants of “Light the post!” in the final minutes.
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Kings: Sacramento went 0-5 in the regular season against New Orleans and has not gone winless in six or more games against the same opponent in a season since going 0-8 against the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1983 regular season. 84 and decisive games.
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AP NBA:
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