California beamin'
The Kings know who they are, and now everyone else does too.
Good morning. This is a special Sunday issue of the newsletter in celebration of opening weekend of the NBA playoffs. Feel free to forward it to anyone you think would enjoy it.
Let’s basketball.
The Voyage of Life: Old Age; Thomas Cole; 1842
The Warriors have known who they were for almost a decade. Of course, the team has changed in some dramatic ways: first when Kevin Durant arrived for his 3-year residence, again when he left and Klay Thompson went down with injuries that cost him 2.5 seasons, again as Klay returned just as Andrew Wiggins had learned to play the best basketball of his life. This season has represented some change, as well, with the Warriors having jettisoned most of the bench that worked en route to a championship last year, and then deciding alter course on their Two Timelines plan.
Despite all that, at their core the Warriors have always been a team centered around Stephen Curry’s prodigious talents, Klay’s two-way excellence and Draymond Green’s world-class defense and playmaking. You know what you’re getting most of the time with the Warriors: those three putting some immense pressure on your defense from range and your offense getting mucked up in some way.
That’s exactly what the Warriors did to the Kings on Saturday night in Game 1 of what certainly shapes up to be the series of the first round. Golden State wasn’t hitting its threes at some absurd pace, but they sure were taking plenty and getting the Kings in rotation on defense. Curry hit some absolute haymaker shots, and Thompson hit a couple of big ones late.
Green, meanwhile, combined with Kevon Looney to make Domantas Sabonis’ life hell. Sabonis had quite possibly his worst offensive night of the entire season, shooting just 5/17 from the floor (he shot 61% this season) with two assists and four turnovers. Usually you’d think a bad Sabonis line could be chalked up to a bad whistle, but that wasn’t super evident here. The Warriors consistently worked to blow up the Kings’ dribble hand-off action — their bread and butter with Sabonis as the hub. A rewatch will be required to see whether Sabonis’ misses in the paint were caused more by the Warriors’ resistance or whether it was bad luck. He missed a bunch of lay-ups and putbacks he usually makes, though.
What was amazing about all of this, though, is that the Warriors mostly did what they wanted to do … and they still lost. But while the basketball world is still figuring it out, the Kings know exactly who they are, and they leaned all the way into pace and attacking the gaps. De’Aaron Fox, in his first career playoff appearance after almost 400 NBA games, hit the burners and the brakes and ended up with 38. Malik Monk, an offensive chaos machine that sometimes makes Jordan Poole look reasonable, turned off whatever basketball inhibitions he actually has and dropped 32 in 13 FGAs (and a perfect 14/14 on FTs).
The Kings, and specifically Fox and Monk, got faster and faster as the game went on and the tension grew. This is something the Kings’ coaching staff said leading into the series, that they wanted to play even faster than in the regular season. They did. Malika Andrews reported after halftime that the Kings staff said they wanted to play even faster in the second half. THEY DID. To neutralize Green and Looney’s defense on Sabonis and to punish any Warriors’ attempts at offensive rebounds, the Kings kept sprinting the floor in crunch time, not slowing the ball down with a lead, not trying to burn clock or grind down everything. They sprinted for layups and drawn fouls and quick, clean shots. It worked, and the Warriors couldn’t really keep up.
Monk is a revelation, but those who have watched this team know it’s unlikely he does this every night. He’s like a comet: he burns hot, regularly and briefly. I suspect the Warriors will try to keep Andrew Wiggins on him seal off the paint a little more, though they might need Wiggins to (try to) deal with Fox since Thompson isn’t going to be a consistent answer there.
The Kings’ counter to a defense focused on limiting Fox and Monk is for Keegan Murray and Kevin Huerter, two of the most efficient and prolific deep shooters in the league this season, to do better than 0/8 from long-range. It’ll be fascinating to see the Warriors’ defensive adjustments and whether that allows Sabonis (the Warriors’ obvious biggest priority in Game 1) to unlock a bit. And of course the Warriors will make some offensive adjustments, as well: you’d expect to see them attack the paint more even though they don’t have a ton of players reliable at doing that. It may just be making sure Curry gets no fewer than 25 or 30 shooting possessions in a game. He had 21 in 37 minutes in Game 1.
We thought this could be the best series of the first round. So far, so good. Tremendous atmosphere, impeccable vibes, entertaining styles. Basketball at its finest.
Light the beam.
Scores
FRIDAY
Bulls 91, Heat 102 — Max Strus had the game of his life, at least in the first half. But Chicago kept fighting and had a chance to win late. Jimmy Butler shut the door, as he often does.
Thunder 95, Timberwolves 120 — Huge effort from Karl-Anthony Towns to put a stamp on this game, which is not always a given!
But the most heartwarming items from this game?
SATURDAY
Nets 101, Sixers 121 (PHI leads 1-0) — James Harden had looked pretty rough after returning from a hamstring injury the last couple weeks of the season. That was probably the biggest fear for the Sixers heading into the playoffs: was Harden healthy enough to be as good as the Sixers need him to be to beat Boston?
Looked pretty good against a team well-suited to disrupt him.
Mikal Bridges was the game’s leading scorer and the Nets lost by 20. That’s not a great sign for Brooklyn.
Hawks 99, Celtics 112 (BOS leads 1-0) — Plenty of folks were calling this series a likely gentleman’s sweep, and the Celtics took that personally. They went up 30 at the half, and it wasn’t even that close. The C’s were on their asses literally from the first possession of the game. Boston looks pretty damn serious.
Knicks 101, Cavaliers 97 (NYK leads 1-0) — Heckuva game, and this series looks dope too. Donovan Mitchell went off, but Jalen Brunson exploded in the second half. Big effort, big poise, time to see how the youngsters on the Cleveland roster — particularly Evan Mobley — react.
Mitchell is so amped for the playoffs, it just oozes out of him. Look at him react to Julius Randle briefly reacting to a hard foul by Jarrett Allen. Mitchell wants to spark something up!
Warriors 123, Kings 126 (SAC leads 1-0)
Schedule
All times Eastern. All Game 1s, of course.
Lakers at Grizzlies, 3, ABC
Heat at Bucks, 5:30, TNT
Clippers at Suns, 8, TNT
Timberwolves at Nuggets, 10:30, TNT
Reactions to this set of Game 1s on Monday. See you then. Be excellent to each other.
LIGHT THE MF BEAM
I keep laughing when I think of that ridiculous, impossible, crazy three that Curry hit in crunch time. I'm rooting for the Kings as a team in this series but Curry remains a joy forever.