With a 118-94 play-in tournament victory, the Sacramento Kings have eliminated the Warriors, exacting revenge for their NBA playoff loss to Golden State the previous season.
With it, the Kings will now head to New Orleans on Friday (AEST) to take on the Pelicans in an attempt to secure a first-round playoff matchup with Oklahoma City, the top seed.
Regarding Golden State, focus now shifts to a crucial summer and whether or not this was the team’s final game with Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson.
Thompson is a free agent and if this does end up being his last game for the Warriors it was a rough one, going 0-for-10 from the field in a scoreless game.
Thompson, who had averaged 23.1 points this month, was also targeted with success on the other end of the floor by the Kings.
Curry, meanwhile, having put 50 points on the Kings in Game 7 last year to eliminate them from the playoffs, scored only 22 on Wednesday in the face of the relentless Sacramento defence.
As for the Kings, all five of their starters hit double figures with Keegan Murray and De’Aaron Fox combining for 56 points while the ever-reliable Domantas Sabonis had 16 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists, two steals and a block.
The Warriors entered Wednesday’s do-or-die play-in tournament game as one of the league’s most in-form teams, having won 10 of their last 12, while the Kings had gone 2-5 to end the regular season.
