You wanted the Kings? You got the Kings

Be careful what you wish for. PLUS: Poking bear goes terribly wrong, news at 11.

Good morning. Special Saturday edition. Let’s basketball.

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Boy Bitten by a Lizard; Caravaggio; 1593-94

After the Sacramento Kings went on their win streak coming out of the All-Star break and it became clear they’d be a playoff team, analysts were constantly mentioning that veteran championship hopefuls in the bottom of the bracket — the Warriors, the Lakers, the Clippers, for a time the Mavericks — wanted to face the young, inexperienced Kings. And to a certain degree, it made sense given that the other options were the Denver Nuggets with a supernova Nikola Jokic, the pre-injury, pre-Ja Morant suspension Memphis Grizzlies and the Devin Booker-Kevin Durant Phoenix Suns.

What all these analyses of the preferred path discounted is how difficult the Sacramento Kings are to beat. As I said before the playoffs, the Kings are not going to beat themselves. You’re going to have to knock them out. They are going to sprint the floor, they are going to fire up a ton of threes, De’Aaron Fox is going to dance you all over the paint, Domantas Sabonis is going to pass and pound, Mike Brown is going to throw a dozen different looks at you. They aren’t just going to show up under the bright lights and fold. You’re going to have to knock them out.

Case in point: elimination game after losing three straight, on the road against the defending champs: a perfect opportunity to have high nerves, poor execution and a plane ticket to a sunny locale.

And the Kings played on a string with high intensity, high execution level and high confidence. They ran and ran and ran, they defended better than they have perhaps all season, and they WON.

Against the team that made smallball a legitimate championship-level tactic almost a decade ago, a strategy then embraced by teams across the league, the Kings went even further with 6’9 Trey Lyles playing 25 minutes of center. He ended up playing more minutes than Sabonis, who suffered both foul trouble and one of the gnarliest black eyes in recent NBA memory.

(No foul on the Warriors on that play, for those keeping track at home.)

Kevin Huerter, ice cold all series long, KEPT SHOOTING. He hit two huge threes early in the fourth quarter to help build and hold the Kings’ lead while Steph Curry and Klay Thompson were hunting for the plays to get the crowd into the game.

Brown went to Lyles early and often, and also pivoted to Terence Davis III off the bench, largely over Davion Mitchell, who has been playing fierce defense on Curry this series. Davis played great, at times overly physical, defense on Curry as well, fouling out in 19 minutes but doing exactly what the Kings needed. It also leaves Brown with two options on Curry for Game 7 with Mitchell rested.

Speaking of rest: Keegan Murray barely got any. 45 minutes of playing time for the rookie. He played 22 minutes and 26 seconds of the first half, 11 minutes and six seconds of the third quarter, and all but the final 28 seconds (when Brown cleared the bench) of the fourth quarter. So, two minutes and 28 seconds of real rest in an elimination game on the road. For a rookie. Unreal. That’s trust, that’s belief, that’s confidence.

That’s why I’m not feeling all of the discourse around “the Warriors’ blowing a closeout chance at home on Friday.” Or about the Warriors’ season-long problems coming home to roost in Game 6. This is about the Sacramento Kings doing what they have done all season and much of this series and imposing their will on an opponent that struggles to keep up with the pace. The Warriors are older, more shallow and looser with the ball. By playing as aggressively and swiftly as they did — trying to force turnovers, running on makes, daring the Warriors to beat them at the rim — the Kings imposed their will on the defending champs and made them play Sacramento’s game. And we see the result.

Golden State can still win, obviously. Curry and Thompson continue to hit absurd shots because that’s who they are. Draymond Green had minimal impact in Game 6, but often shows out on offense in critical games. Andrew Wiggins is a swing player for the Warriors who has shown exquisite ability to put secondary Kings defenders in hell. We have seen Kevon Looney dominate games in this series on the boards. Sabonis remains totally uncomfortable on offense. Barnes and Huerter’s shotmaking has been very inconsistent. The Warriors under Steve Kerr are not afraid of bold adjustments (like inserting Jonathan Kuminga earlier, or benching Jordan Poole, or starting small to disrupt the Kings’ gameplan). This is, in all likelihood, going to be a massive battle in Game 7, unless one team is just unreasonably cold or hot, which can happen any given day in the modern high-variance NBA.

Make no mistake: those contenders in the lower half of the West bracket really did think they wanted Sacramento. I suspect they won’t be targeting the Kings in the playoffs next year, though.

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Brooks And Done

Last week, in reference to LeBron, Dillon Brooks said he doesn’t respect anyone until they score 40 points on him. Well, LeBron James didn’t score 40 on Dillon Brooks in Game 6 in L.A. But the Lakers did beat the Grizzlies by 40 to send Memphis packing. Does that count?