Takeaways from Kings-Warriors: Domantas Sabonis Problems and 4 Other Game Notes 5

Sacramento, Calif. — The Warriors snapped a three-game winning streak against the Kings, going 3-2 in the first round. Sacramento started the series with confidence, seeming ready to dispel any narrative about their lack of playoff experience. Then, the reigning NBA champions found their footing and have shown off their wealth of postseason familiarity ever since.

Here are five notes from the Kings’ 123-116 Game 5 loss to Golden State:

The impact of Fox’s broken finger

Daron Fox’s broken left index finger – and his decision to play in spite of it – became a focal point of the series. Fox finished Game 5 with 24 points, nine assists, seven rebounds, two steals and six turnovers, shooting 9-of-25 from the field and 3-of-10 from 3.

Fox spoke about his performance afterward by simply saying, “We had a lot of turnovers tonight. I had a lot of turnover tonight. … I have to play better.”

The All-Stars wore a brace on his finger and showed no signs of being hampered by injury early on, shooting 3-of-3 from behind the arc in the first quarter.

While he couldn’t sustain his 3-point shooting touch in the second quarter, going 0-of-4, Fox was still able to attack the paint. He dropped his patently left jumper, twisted his body for a left-handed layup and sunk a float into an offensive bounce off his stride. His 17 points in the first half with a broken index finger says a lot about his strength.

But the Warriors limited him to just seven points in the second half, holding him to 3-of-12 from the field in the last 24 minutes. The Fox team were not in the fourth quarter that Kings fans had expected with a scoreless score of 0 of 6 in the final frame. The last time the Player of the Year played in the opening Clutch during the fourth quarter and did not score was on February 6 against the Rockets, when he shot 0-of-3 in just four minutes.

The biggest, most compressed moments brought out the best in Fox this season. Take a look at his 3 award winning confidences against bulls and magic. Or the way he dominated the fourth quarter with his tireless scoring.

Game 6 would be the most important game of Fox’s youth career. Let’s see how he responds to his appearance on the elimination wall.

Sabonis hampered again

The night Domantas Sabonis was honored Leads the league in rebounds per gameHis Warriors counterpart, Kevon Looney, has cleaned the glass on par with Hall of Famers Wilt Chamberlain and Nate Thurmond. Looney joined Chamberlain and Tormond as the only players in Warriors history to record multiple 20-rebound games in the same game series.

Golden State finished with four points, 22 rebounds, seven assists and one block. Looney averages 6.0 points, 14.4 rebounds and 5.0 assists per game in this series.

Despite the low scoring numbers, Looney won his match against Sabonis. The Kings’ three-time All-Star averaged 19.1 points, 12.3 rebounds, and 7.3 assists per game, shooting 61.5 percent from the field during the regular season. Through five postseason games, Sabonis is averaging 17.2 points, 11.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game on 50 percent shooting.

One of the few statistical increases Sabonis has seen in this series is his turnover per game, jumping from 2.9 in the regular season to 4.0 in the postseason.

While Sabonis’ game numbers may not seem far off from the regular season, his impact on winning has been neutralized. Through 79 games this season, the Kings have outscored their opponents by 212 points when the 26-year-old is on the floor. Five games into the playoffs, Sabonis minus 38. He finished just one game-minus-plus-1 after Game 2.

3 shooting points on low heat

Sacramento had the highest scoring first quarter of the series on Wednesday behind a blazingly hot start from 3-point range, shooting 8-of-12.

Coach Mike Brown has been adamant throughout the series that he will continue to support his players and encourage them to let them fly from downtown. His message after Game 5 was no different.

“we Owns To keep shooting 3s, Brown said. “But they won’t get in. Sure, we’ll live with our buddies shooting these things because we think we’ll have a game or two here where we’ll make more 3s out of the game than just a quarter.”

The Kings ranked fifth in the NBA in 3s per game this season, at 13.8 at 36.9 percent. This optimistic expansion of the two games would certainly be possible.

Rookie Keegan Murray is the embodiment of the faith the Browns have in his team. Through his first three playoff games, he was 1-of-8 from 3. Over his last two games, Murray was 7-of-9 from long range.

Kevin Huerter, whose attempts in the regular season (6.8) and made (2.7) led the team entering the postseason, is only 4 of 25 from behind the arc in this series.

But the Kings’ shooting struggles extend beyond Huerter and Murray. Sacramento forward Harrison Barnes went scoreless during halftime Wednesday, shooting 0-of-2 from the field. His 11 minutes consisted of one rebound, one assist, one steal, and one turnover.

Barnes was unable to reach the free throw line until the second half, when the Kings came out to feed the 30-year-old. He scored nine of 13 points in the third quarter, hitting 7 of 7 at the charity bar. If Sacramento hopes to extend its season, Barnes will have to manufacture more quarters like the third quarter and less like the first two quarters. Missed shots are part of the game, but the Kings can’t stand a fourth-place finisher trying to score just two goals within the first 24 minutes.

Return twists bite the kings

The Kings’ 19 turnovers in Game 5 were the most of any game in the series for them, and that high number is probably too much to win against most teams, let alone the defending champions. Part of what makes the Warriors special is their ability to take advantage of opponents’ mistakes. In a game separated by seven points, Golden State scored 14 of its points from turnovers and 12 in transition. Sacramento’s neglect of the ball directly led to the Warriors scoring points throughout the game, especially down the field.

The Kings, counterintuitively, went 6-2 during the regular season when they turned the ball over at least 19 times in a game. The main difference between Wednesday night and those six wins in the regular season was the three-point shooting. Sacramento connected for nearly 17 3s per game in those six wins and even hit 13 3s per contest in the two losses. It didn’t happen on Wednesday night.

It’s no surprise that the 3-point shot hides other errors made throughout the game, but the Kings can’t expect to turn the ball over 19 times and win. Not in the playoffs. Especially against Golden State.

Draymond Nowitzki hurts

Draymond Green was great off the bench for the Warriors and invaluable to their Game 5 success. He dropped 21 points, seven assists, four rebounds and four blocked shots on 8-of-10 shooting. How attacked he feels.

“He was amazing,” Stephen Curry said of Green. “He stepped into his role, understood how he could help us come off the bench and still play 32 minutes…the way they guard us, it’s huge for him to be aggressive.

“That fade – we’ve seen it before early in his career working on it… It was a huge momentum for us. I joked to him, ‘When the statues come down the road, that might be the new mode.’”

The 33-year-old Green came off the bench more calculated than usual, and had a knack for being in the right place at the right time. Green took advantage of the moments when he would normally look for Curry, Klay Thompson, or the Jordan Poole 3. Instead of looking up from the basket and trying to get his teammates to look open, Green took advantage of those actions several times and darted into the hoop. layup.

The four-time star looked the same as himself in the 2015-16 season, when he scored 14 points per game. Green started his score with a right hand float over Sabonis while fading to his left. Finding himself in a dunker spot down the hoop to catch a handful of plays, he was aggressive in transition.

The last time Green scored 20 points in a playoff game was against the Trail Blazers in Game 3 in the 2019 Western Conference Finals. He finished with 20 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists, and four steals in that game.

Related reading

Thompson: The Warriors were put into a clinic late in the fifth game
Kawakami: Golden State keeps its streak alive in Sacramento
Jones: The Kings need warrior-like desperation to save their turnaround season

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(Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)