Kings prepare for Pelicans with clean record despite winless record

Kings prepare for Pelicans with clean record despite winless record originally appeared in NBC Sports Bay Area

SACRAMENTO – With the season on the line, the Kings will face a New Orleans Pelicans team that has intimidated and embarrassed them five times in the last five months.

Not only will the Kings try to avoid going 0-6 against the same team in a single season when they play New Orleans on Friday night at the Smoothie King Center in an NBA Play-In Tournament game, but another loss would mean that the The 2023-24 NBA season is over – at the hands of its season-long tormentors.

The Kings, however, don’t see it that way.

Kings forward Keegan Murray, coming off a big game against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, said the vibes around the team are as good as they have been all season, adding that the team feels confident heading into the match. of Friday. Murray rejected the idea that New Orleans’ 0-5 record over Sacramento will factor into Friday’s big game.

“No way. We’re just focused on this game,” Murray said after Thursday’s practice. “It’s a one-game series. We know if we win, we’ll move on. Any other game doesn’t matter, it’s not as important as This one.”

The two teams faced each other three times up until December 4th, once in January and the fifth and final time exactly one week ago on April 11th.

Four of Sacramento’s five losses to New Orleans were by double digits and two were by more than 30 points. The respective outcomes, in chronological order, were: 129-93, 117-112, 127-117, 133-100 and 135-123.

“We just have to be better,” Kings guard De’Aaron Fox said Thursday. “What happened before doesn’t matter. This is a one game series. We have to go to their place and win a victory.

“We have to win against a team we haven’t beaten this year. You go there and you want to prove it to yourself. This is how the chips were placed. We have to be able to win this game if we want to get to where we want to be.

The Kings (46-36) finished as the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference, while the Pelicans (49-33) finished as the No. 8 seed. New Orleans faced the seventh-seeded Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday to battle for a sixth-seeded playoff seed and a first-round series against the defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets.

Meanwhile, Sacramento took care of business and hosted 10th-seeded Golden State, but its path to a first-round series has one more hurdle — and the Kings must face their fears against their biggest bullies.

Regardless of the sky-high stakes, Murray doesn’t feel any added pressure, but acknowledged that these games “feel like Game 7.”

“Not really, to be honest,” Murray said. “We go out there and at the end of the day it’s basketball, so you want to go out there and give it your all. At the end of the day, my goal is to leave the game with no regrets and I want to go into the offseason, whenever that may be, with no regrets.

Now with three playoff games under their belt, including Games 6 and 7 of last season’s first-round playoff series against the Warriors, along with Tuesday’s game, the Kings feel prepared for the moment.

“Yes, definitely,” Fox said when asked if the team feels ready. “Obviously we’ll have filming tomorrow, but we’re ready now.”

Kings coach Mike Brown feels the same confidence and believes the adversity that struck his team like lightning in the final stretch of the season helped prepare them for a high-pressure moment.

Sacramento lost two key pieces to its offense when Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk suffered injuries. But under unfortunate circumstances, the rise of NBA history-making two-way player Keon Ellis and the resurgence of third-year guard Davion Mitchell helped the Kings turn the corner at the right time.

“I feel like our guys are [ready],” said Brown. “Going through what we went through at the end of the season, where every game felt like a must-win for us, helped us grow and have the right mindset for games like this going forward.”

After the Warriors ended the Kings’ storybook season last April in a heartbreaking seven-game series, the Kings sought and exacted revenge two nights ago when they returned the favor to their Northern California neighbors.

As the team approaches Friday’s game with a clean slate and leaving the past in the past, Mitchell licks his fingers a little with more vengeance at the plate.

“We’re definitely looking forward to it,” Mitchell told reporters after Tuesday’s win. “In the regular season they kept beating us. They kind of had our number and were talking trash all the time, so we’re looking forward to it.

“We need our return. This is something we need to get. The Warriors were a team we wanted to play just because of Game 7 [last season]but this is a team we definitely need to hire.”

Brown doesn’t necessarily see it that way, but he doesn’t care how or where his players get their motivation.

“Davion said something about our last game being a revenge game. If guys feel that way, then whatever motivates them or whatever pushes them,” Brown said. “I didn’t care if it was Golden State. I didn’t care if it was New Orleans. Whoever is in front of us – we have to win. And whatever motivation we need to generate a win, I’m all for it.”