[Game] Golden State Warriors (6) @ Sacramento Kings (3) (WCDS Game 7, 3-3) 4/30/2023 12:30pm Pacific 3:30pm Eastern (ABC)

[SLAB]

Perhaps the greatest tribute to the greatness of this season and team is how we feel right now. We truly knew in our heart of hearts that this team was better than the national champs.

I never once did. Lol

 

[KainLear]

Kings fans setting the standard. This is who we are.

https://twitter.com/statuses/1652798962238357505

I wish that was all of us, but I'm glad that's most of us.

 

[TaxMan]

Had a bad feeling once i allowed myself to come down from the high of game 6. Sucks the warriors continue to have these experiences while we keep getting heartbroken or crushed. i just don't understand

Winning game 6 when I had already accepted the series loss was a lot more fun than getting blown out in the second half of game seven that was anyone’s game at half. Sad, but reminding myself I picked the warriors in 6 at the start. Excited to see what Monte does next and the big growth I think we see from Keegan next year.
As for the rest of the playoffs, gooooo nuggets!

 

[NewArena]

Two plays characterize this game for me. One of them was Steph dribbling the entire length of the court with Draymond shadowing him like a lead blocker the whole way. 2 points for Golden State and somehow not a moving screen. The other was Steph getting boxed out by Keegan under the basket in the 3rd and immediately flopping out of bounds for free throws (in the penalty). If the officials are going to give them those plays it almost doesn't matter what we do. Steph is the face of the NBA though. We knew we were only going to beat them with a flawless performance.

This is the kind of BS that makes it hard for me to accept certain losses. The blatant cheating that the warriors don't even need to beat us

 

[Ozymandias]

There're no great excuses to be made, but I have to say - damn ball looked like it positive SOUGHT LONEY OUT on several of those boards. Kings weren't out to lunch or just outhustled on all of those. It was weird.

Thats the point of having long armed, broad shouldered players grabbing boards though, and Sabonis has average length for a PF let alone a starting NBA C.. so the ball bounces to them more... I understand sometimes the ball bounces to one team more than others, but Looney had 3 20 rebound games this series, its not a coincidence.

 

[sactowndog]

There're no great excuses to be made, but I have to say - damn ball looked like it positive SOUGHT LONEY OUT on several of those boards. Kings weren't out to lunch or just outhustled on all of those. It was weird.

Sabonis had poor fundamentals in boxing him out. He was trying to face guard him and Looney just jumped and grabbed the ball.

 

[NewArena]

This crap road team really won two of the biggest games in our building. Hurts so damn bad

 

[Ozymandias]

This is the kind of BS that makes it hard for me to accept certain losses. The blatant cheating that the warriors don't even need to beat us

We barely even scored any points the first 6 minutes of the 4th quarter... we couldnt grab a rebound in the 3rd quarter... they beat us fair and square... Game wasnt close on the eye test nor the scoreboard..

 

[Woot!]

Great season. Not a fan of the way it ended, but they had a gear and a willpower we didn’t match, or couldn’t. Heart of a champion is a thing and we just got served a hard lesson by them. I absolutely loathe the Warriors and losing to them stings, especially with a Curry 50 piece.

Some things are clear about this team and some aren’t. It was a great season, but there are some questions that will need to be answered. Rebounding and what to do with Harrison Barnes going forward. I’ll enjoy the season and success we had while I swallow my pride and force myself to root for the damn Lakers.

Overall, a season for the ages. That tiny part of me just wishes we didn’t go out with a whimper. Lessons to be learned.

I don't see how you keep HB after this. I say that as a huge fan of his. But if the coach only sees fit to play the man 28 or so min combined in two playoff elimination games, you cut him loose. And if you're HB, you want to go.

 

[reptilexcq2]

A tough way for it to finish. I have said it again, I think this team will continue to improve as long as mgmt does what is necessary. I think some players are spending their last minutes in our uniforms. I hope we make intelligent choices.

And...I hope the Lakers pound the ever lovin' snot out of the warriors....and I say that as no fan whatosover of the Lakers.

I will look to trade Barnes, Huerter for an upgrade. Barnes is not a good team defender and Huerter is soft. They're liability on defense...basically offensive minded players that try to play defense under Brown system.

 

[TaxMan]

And others aren't and I'm speaking to them.

Choose the good life, hit the ignore button.

 

[Tetsujin]

Warriors proved their mettle. Propers to them.

I made this prediction after Game 5 in 1999, against the Jazz, and history proved me right. I'm going to make it again, right now: this is the last time in the Curry era that the Warriors will ever beat the Kings in a playoff series.

This really did feel a lot like that first Jazz series. The Kings gave a great team everything they could handle and pretty much announced themselves as a great team to watch going forward to everyone but Kings fans.

The key now is to not trade for Nick Anderson and waste a couple of seasons floundering in the first round of the playoffs before finally figuring it out/trading for Doug Christie.

 

[SacTownKid]

I'll say it one more time...

Keegan Murray is the X-factor of our Playoffs success. He hesitated and reverted back to being a bit more passive in the 2nd half and our wagon suddenly ran without a wheel.

This is the thing though, is it him? Or the way he's been used? As is, unless he literally develops into Khris Middleton, it's going to be very hard for him to find his way in this offense as anything other than a system guy. Huge summer for Keegan and his ball handling chops and first step are the keys unless they put in some Iowa post and mid post action.

 

[iowamcnabb]

I'm not embarrassed, I'm proud as hell of this team. We had this down to a 5pt game late in the third before the 4pt play blunder. Our stars didn't show out in the 4th but that was mostly because giving up a million offensive rebounds (on the same play) is completely demoralizing and the Warriors capitalized on our inability to rebound by turning missed 2pt baskets into made 3pt baskets. That's not all on Domas -- he can't hold off three guys by himself down there. He needs help in the post and we have to find a better balance between relying on our shooters and keeping defensive roleplayers on the floor.

I bet if we were to go watch loons rebounds a majority of them are the long rebound variety where the guy who is being boxed out actually has the advantage. I’m not sure how you can avoid that unless Domas or others position themselves further out but then that opens up the paint. If someone has the answer I’d love to hear it

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

Sabonis had poor fundamentals in boxing him out. He was trying to face guard him and Looney just jumped and grabbed the ball.

The least appreciated and the most lost fundamental in the pro game.

 

[Tetsujin]

This crap road team really won two of the biggest games in our building. Hurts so damn bad

To be fair, the best home team in the league also got absolutely spanked at Chase Center on Friday so that narrative really goes both ways.

 

[sactowndog]

And others aren't and I'm speaking to them.

It’s still 30 seconds after the game. Nothing wrong about being upset after the loss.

 

[TaxMan]

Sabonis had poor fundamentals in boxing him out. He was trying to face guard him and Looney just jumped and grabbed the ball.

I get the criticism, but seems a bit of a stretch to be complaining about the rebounding fundamentals of the leading rebounder in the nba this year. There is only so much one man can do.

 

[Woot!]

I will look to trade Barnes, Huerter for an upgrade. Barnes is not a good team defender and Huerter is soft. They're liability on defense...basically offensive minded players that try to play defense under Brown system.

Huerter isn't remotely "soft" and Barnes was under-utilized offensively all season.

 

[SacTownKid]

This really did feel a lot like that first Jazz series. The Kings gave a great team everything they could handle and pretty much announced themselves as a great team to watch going forward to everyone but Kings fans.

The key now is to not trade for Nick Anderson and waste a couple of seasons floundering in the first round of the playoffs before finally figuring it out/trading for Doug Christie.

Well, I remember the key being a painful but very fruitful one. Traded the golden boy PG and the Big Nasty, 2/5's of your starting crew and replaced it with talent and balance. It's crazy how the universe works sometimes.

 

[Ozymandias]

What gets me is that Looney makes $8MM per season... And Sabonis is gonna cost us how much in the summer of 2024? 5 times that?

We better get ourselves a proper shotblocking / rebounding backup C... thats all ima say or this could be a reoccuring theme in the playoffs.

 

[KF8]

A positive from this loss... Warriors are probably the tougher match up against the Lakers lol.

 

[NewArena]

Curry likely giggling as Davion watches from the bench. Just some bizarre decision making in this one smh

 

[Jones2006]

I’m critical of Sabonis but rebounding is not an area to criticize him on. Doesn’t matter how much Looney gets - defensive rebounding is a team game. There was a lot of long rebounds which falls on the guards and forwards to box out, put in that extra effort. Really though Kings played small a lot so this will happen. Every team loves the long forwards that can rebound (and shoot) but they’re hard to find.

 

[Tetsujin]

Well, I remember the key being a painful but very fruitful one. Traded the golden boy PG and the Big Nasty, 2/5's of your starting crew and replaced it with talent and balance. It's crazy how the universe works sometimes.

To be fair, by midway through that first playoff season Corliss was pretty clearly just sorta in the way of Peja in the Kings rotation.

 

[TaxMan]

This is the thing though, is it him? Or the way he's been used? As is, unless he literally develops into Khris Middleton, it's going to be very hard for him to find his way in this offense as anything other than a system guy. Huge summer for Keegan and his ball handling chops and first step are the keys unless they put in some Iowa post and mid post action.

Let me ask you this, is Klay a system guy? Because his career is nothing like it’s ended up if he was on another team.

 

[hrdboild]

I don't see how you keep HB after this. I say that as a huge fan of his. But if the coach only sees fit to play the man 28 or so min combined in two playoff elimination games, you cut him loose. And if you're HB, you want to go.

I think HB knows it too. Golden State has been his kryptonite all year, it's just unfortunate we never got a chance to see him play his A game in the playoffs. He had some big moments though. I wouldn't mind seeing him back on a 1 year deal but it's obvious we're looking to find another starter to take the next leap from playoff team to contender and he's the odd man out so not only would he have to take a pay cut to stay with this group, he'd also have to be okay with a bench role.

 

[ShastaKingsFan]

I bet if we were to go watch loons rebounds a majority of them are the long rebound variety where the guy who is being boxed out actually has the advantage. I’m more sure how you can avoid that unless Domas or others position themselves further out but then that opens up the paint. If someone has the answer I’d love to hear it

He was getting rebounds in every spot on the floor this series, against Sabonis...who is a league leader in rebounds. To think that it was mostly lucky bounces, is simply not accurate

 

[KainLear]

This is the thing though, is it him? Or the way he's been used? As is, unless he literally develops into Khris Middleton, it's going to be very hard for him to find his way in this offense as anything other than a system guy. Huge summer for Keegan and his ball handling chops and first step are the keys unless they put in some Iowa post and mid post action.

I still think it is mostly him. Time and time again, he has displayed skills we never knew he got (on the NBA level). The poise he has on the defensive end, particularly, while still having to deal with this crapty league's "He's a rookie therefore he must not have the skill set to defend so well, it must be a foul" refereeing. I believe from my knowledge of his Iowa days and from my eye test that a prime Murray is a 2-way 3-level scorer who could be more efficient and prolific than Middleton.

Going forward, I still think he'll dictate how we do in the post-season with his development.

 

[NewArena]

What gets me is that Looney makes $8MM per season... And Sabonis is gonna cost us how much in the summer of 2024? 5 times that?

We better get ourselves a proper shotblocking / rebounding backup C... thats all ima say or this could be a reoccuring theme in the playoffs.

Maybe we need a Naz Reid type to slide Sabonis over to the 4? Someone that can stretch the floor and rebound. Idk, I’m too depressed to even think about the off-season. I hate everything