SACRAMENTO, Apr. 18 (U.S.): As the umpires went to the replay screen to decide if Draymond Green should be ejected for his hard hitting, the Sacramento Kings took the time to regroup and make sure they didn’t lose focus down the stretch. .
The Associated Press reports that Daron Fox and his crew took the lead from there and gave the Kings a 2-0 lead in the defending NBA title.
Fox scored 24 points and made a impactful 3 points that led the newcomer Kings to a 114-106 playoff win Monday night for their second consecutive victory over the Golden State Warriors.
“I think that brought us together,” said Fox. “We got together and said, ‘We have to win this game. ‘ Everyone thought he was going to be fired. When that happens, normally this team would just come together and go running. But we managed to say no to that.”
The Kings finished the match strong after Green was ejected for a flagrant foul on Domantas Sabonis. They became the first team to go 2-0 in the Warriors series in the Stephen Curry era.
The Warriors will attempt a return to the series when they relocate less than 90 miles southwest of San Francisco for Game 3 on Thursday night.
“I have to hug her,” Carey said. “You’ve been doing this as long as we have to stay together and keep things closed.”
The game heated up in the fourth quarter when Green stomped on Sabonis’ chest with 7:03 to play, resulting in his ejection for a flagrant foul.
During the review, fans in Sacramento shouted insulting cheers at Green, who urged them to wave his hands, put a hand to his ear for louder cheers and stand on a chair.
“I grabbed my leg,” Green said. “Second time in two nights. The refs are just watching. I have to get my foot in somewhere. I’m not the most flexible person, so it doesn’t stretch that far. I can only progress so far.”
Sabonis finished the game but coach Mike Brown said he would have an X-ray afterwards to make sure there was no damage to his ribs or lungs.
Now it will be up to the NBA to determine if the firing is all that was guaranteed or if Green will face a potential suspension.
“It was definitely the Shrieker-2,” Brown said. It will be interesting to see what the NBA does after its review.
The Warriors fought back to tie the game before the Kings went on a 17-8 run to run with it to the delight of the towel-waving crowd.
Fox’s 3-pointer made it 107-101 with 2:17 to play and the Kings were in control from there. Davon Mitchell put him up with another 3 that made it 112-103 with 1:18 remaining.
“The big three into the corner was honestly the nail in the coffin,” Fox said of Mitchell’s shot. Sabonis added 24 points for Sacramento, and Malik Monk scored 18 off the bench.
Curry led the Warriors with 28 points but only shot 3 of 13 from 3-point range as Golden State struggled for offense. The Warriors committed 22 turnovers.
“They played better than we did out on the field,” coach Steve Kerr said. They played more physically than us tonight.
The success-hungry Sacramento crowd wasn’t quite as raucous at first as it was at the series opener when fans celebrated the franchise’s first playoff game after a record-breaking 16-season drought.
The crowd started to get into it in the second quarter thanks to another bench spark from Monk, who scored 32 points in the opener. Monk hit three three-pointers in the first 2:04 of the period to help fuel a 23-8 run that turned a six-point deficit into nine.
Golden State fought back and connected on a 3 by Curry before allowing the final six points of the quarter to trail 58-52 at halftime.
The Kings built the lead to 14 points in the third quarter before the Warriors scored eight straight. Sacramento took an 83-75 lead heading into fourth.
slow start
The teams got off to a sloppy start with all nine turnovers in the first quarter. The combined 18 total turnovers in the first period were the most of any game in more than six seasons and the most in a playoff game since at least the 2001-02 season.
The Kings also missed their first 11 three-pointers before Fox made a first down.
Tip-ins
WARRIORS: Andrew Wiggins is back in the starting lineup for his second game after missing more than two months to deal with an undisclosed family matter. Wiggins scored 22 points. … Golden State committed five fouls in the first 1:42 of the third quarter.
Kings: Sacramento’s 41 points in the second quarter marked the eighth time a team has scored at least 40 points in a playoff quarter against the Warriors in Kerr’s tenure.
Rial