San Francisco – The Warriors unraveled in what should have been a close out game. The Kings dropped 17 three-point shots to dominate the Warriors 118-99 to force a Game 7 in Sacramento on Sunday. Golden State lost their first home contest of the series, falling to 2-1 at Chase Center this postseason.
“I thought the Kings were the aggressor from the start,” said Steve Kerr. “You know, putting a lot of pressure on us defensively and we didn’t execute early in the game. There were four or five plays early where we just took quick shots or didn’t pass the ball to the open guy, and I think at halftime we had eight assists. You know, so we just never got our rhythm. We never got into our game.
But I give Sacramento the credit for that. They came out with more force and more energy and they executed better. So the right team won, that’s for sure. They came in and earned the victory, and now we’ve got to regroup and get ready for Game 7.”
Golden State lost their first home contest of the series. Tonight marked the Warriors 13th home-playoff loss dating back to 2015. Stephen Curry scored a game-high 29 points. He’s tallied 28-or-more points in every playoff game this season; averaging 31.0 ppg in this year’s playoffs; with 3,756 career playoff points, passed Hakeem Olajuwon (3,755) to move into 14th on the NBA Playoffs all-time points scored list.
“I mean, a loss exposes a lot of things because, you know, when you go look at the film and you see where the improvements need to be made,” Curry said. “Like you’ve got to be honest with yourself regarding what it was. I felt like we were all on the same page yesterday when we were kind of preparing for the game and understanding what the task at hand was, just didn’t do it.
So I’m not concerned at all. It’s just the playoffs presents a lot of challenges and a lot of different scenarios you find yourself in, and you know, the great teams figure it out.”
“We’ve all been there,” said Klay Thompson. “I’ve had terrible slumps during playoffs, the Olympics, at the highest level. Jordan is only 23 years old. We lose as a team; we win as a team. It wasn’t on just JP tonight. He could come out and get 30 effortlessly on Sunday.”
Thompson had 22 points, Green dished out 10 assists, the second time he’s had a 10-assist game in this year’s playoffs. Kevon Looney grabbed 13 rebounds, his fourth consecutive game with 10-or-more rebounds – it’s his longest streak of double-figure rebounds in the playoffs and the longest for a Warrior in the playoffs since Green had a single-playoffs streak of 11 (4/30-6/2/19).
“I thought we played hard but we didn’t play smart,” Looney said. “We didn’t execute our game plan. We know what we needed to do to win. All the small things, getting back in transition, the box-outs, the turnovers, different things like that, we didn’t execute.”
Up Next: The Warriors travel to Sacramento to face the Kings on Sunday, April 30 at 12:30 p.m. in Game 7 of the series.
Photo by Warriors/Twitter
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Kerr talks Green coming off the bench
ON THE PRESSURE BEING ON THE TEAM PLAYING AT HOME SO FAR THIS SERIES:
“Yeah, I think that’s accurate. I think there’s always a little bit of an emotional shift in these series depending on what just happened the game before and where the series is in terms of the score of it. There are a lot of factors but the main thing is, regardless of those factors you just have to lock in and focus and that’s our job today. Just focus on the game plan. Do the things that have helped us win the last three games. And our guys know that and our crowd will be out there helping us. And our guys have been through everything over the last decade, so we feel confident but at the same time, very aware of Sacramento’s force and what they’re going to bring today.”
ON THE BENEFITS OF DRAYMOND GREEN COMING OFF THE BENCH:
“He’s seeing the openings that are there against their defense. He did a great job of attacking last game and seeing lanes to the hoop, putting it on the floor and getting to the rim, and scoring. So I think that is accurate and I think Draymond is also a student of the game. He knows that over the course of NBA history, lots of Hall of Fame players come off the bench. Manu Ginóbili every year it seemed like for the Spurs came off the bench, and he was one of their top three players. John Havlicek came off the bench sometimes with the Celtics. So you just do whatever you have to do to win the game and players of Draymond’s magnitude, they understand that cause it’s much more than just the physical act of rebounding or defending or scoring. There’s a lot that goes into winning and he has that awareness of what that means.”
ON PLAYOFF EXPERIENCE BEING IMPORTANT FOR YOUNG TEAMS:
“I do believe in that theory. I think playoff experience is crucial for a team as it builds, as it evolves and grows. I wouldn’t comment about their team just because it’s their team, it’s not my team, but I do think that every playoff experience you have it helps when you when face the next one. And it’s all part of the process for a young team, for sure.”
KINGS HEAD COACH MIKE BROWN
ON HOW HIS TEAM IS GOING INTO TONIGHT’S GAME:
“We’re ready. We’re confident, our guys are excited about tonight. You know obviously we haven’t been here before but we’re all looking forward to the challenge.”
ON HOW HIS TEAM HAS HANDLED THE MENTAL SIDE OF A PLAYOFF SERIES:
“Good. You know we got beat pretty handedly in game three, and I thought they bounced back in game four, and we gave ourselves a chance to win down the stretch. In game five we gave ourselves a chance to win. You know that’s all you can hope for because you’re not playing against any slouchers at this point in the year, and you could add another notch to their belt with them being defending champs. Our guys, they don’t seem rattled, or out of place, or anything like that at all.”
ON WHAT HE CAN LIVE WITH FROM HIS TEAM’S PERFORMANCE TONIGHT:
“You know no matter if you win or lose, I told this to our team, is as long as you can look each one of your teammates in the eye, and you can say hey I left it out there for every possession, if you can do that then look yourself in the mirror and say the same thing we’ll keep it moving. In terms of the X’s and O’s, one thing we don’t want to give up to these guys is back doors, if you give up back doors to these guys, not only are they points, but it kind of breaks your spirit a little bit. We gave up too many of them in game five.”
