In one of the more anticipated playoff matchups, the defending champion and 6th seeded Golden State Warriors take on the 3rd seeded Sacramento Kings. Game 1 is set for Saturday night at 5:30 p.m. PT in Sacramento where the Warriors are -1 point favorites. The total is 238.5.
Golden State (44-38, #6)
If the series were decided on the basis of experience, the Warriors would be favored.
They boast three future Hall of Famers in Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
Curry, Thompson and Green are all in their mid-30s, and it showed at various points throughout the season. With valuable experience comes mileage. Thompson made a league-leading 300 triples this season, but he’s lost two seasons to surgery. Green moves as if he carries them, too, and Curry missed 26 games to shoulder and leg injuries. But Curry, who led the Warriors in scoring (29.4 PPG.) in his 14th season, is a big-game player especially in the playoffs:
Stephen Curry 2021 NBA Finals highlights vs Nets
36.0 points | 10.5 assists | 2.0 steals
56-46-92 shooting splits4th title in 6 years 🔥🐐 pic.twitter.com/oqAPYlAR0q
— Antonin (@antonin_org) May 4, 2020
Wiggins also had injury issues and his father’s reported medical issues kept him from the team for the final 25 games.
He is expected back for the playoffs, and that could vault the Warriors back into title contention.
Sacramento Kings (48-34, #3)
The Kings traded Tyrese Haliburton last season to pair All-Star center Domantas Sabonis with point guard De’Aaron Fox. Sacramento general manager Monte McNair gets a big share of the credit for revamping the roster. He drafted Keegan Murray at 4th overall, traded for 3-point specialist Kevin Huerter and signed Malik Monk away from the Los Angeles Lakers. All-Star Fox is the leading scorer at 25.4 points per game:
De’Aaron Fox gotta start dunking more to get more all-star votes. Fans need those reels and clips of explosive dunking highlights. #NBA #NBAAllStar2023
pic.twitter.com/cOe9LKHiuP— waves (@916Waves) December 31, 2022
It did not take long for them to make their mark. Huerter made 11 of 17 3-point attempts in his first two games, shot better than 50% from distance for the first month and never fell below 40%. Murray earned a starting job two games into his career and made more 3s than any rookie in league history. Monk played his way into the fringes of the Sixth Man of the Year conversation, scoring 21.8 points per 36 minutes off the bench
Head to head
The Warriors won their regular season series with the Kings, 3-1.
Three of those meetings appeared on the schedule before mid-November, and the fourth came when Sacramento had the No. 3 seed locked up and rested its stars.
The three early meetings were decided by a single point. Curry went crazy in those was absurd in those games averaging 35.7 points over the three games. Wiggins was also integral to Golden State’s success against Sacramento, adding 25 points per game on 55.6% shooting from the field.
Kings guard Fox was strong with an average of 25.3 points in their three games against Curry.
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