The Sacramento Kings get an opportunity to secure a spot in the NBA in-season tournament quarterfinals and exact some revenge on the Golden State Warriors when the rivals meet on Tuesday night in the California capital.
The Kings (3-0 in in-season tournament) will be attempting to sweep West Group C after earlier wins at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder and on the road over the San Antonio Spurs and Minnesota Timberwolves.
Sacramento must win in order to advance to the West final four. Aside from the three group winners, one wild-card team will move on, but the Kings already are assured of not getting that spot should they lose to the Warriors because the Phoenix Suns (3-1), who have completed round-robin play in West Group A, would win a tiebreaker on point differential.
Meanwhile, Golden State (2-1) remains alive as a potential group winner or wild-card entrant.
A win over the Kings, coupled with a Minnesota (2-1) home loss to Oklahoma City on Tuesday, would give the Warriors the Group C championship via a head-to-head tiebreaker over Sacramento.
The Warriors could also win the group via a three-team tiebreaker should the Timberwolves beat the Thunder. Or, should Golden State beat the Kings by at least 30 points, it could finish ahead of the Suns in a tiebreaker for the wild-card spot.
The Houston Rockets (2-1), who visit the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, also remain alive in the race for the lone wild-card spot in the West.
There’s more to advancing in the inaugural event than simply moving a game closer to claiming the first tournament title, Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
“I’ve seen a few players say this, and I think it’s true: Our vets would love to win to see the younger guys get a significant chunk of money,” Kerr said, referring to the $500,000 bonus each player would receive for winning the title. “That’s real. … Same thing for the coaching staff. If we can win this, we’re going to have a whole bunch of young coaches getting a good bonus. That’s meaningful.”
The Kings-Warriors matchup will be the third of the season. Golden State has won the first two — 122-114 at Sacramento on Oct. 27 behind Stephen Curry’s 41 points, and 102-101 five days later in San Francisco on Klay Thompson’s last-second 17-footer.
The Warriors were without Draymond Green during their last trip to Sacramento as he missed the start of the season with an ankle injury. He contributed 13 points and nine assists in the win at home before receiving a five-game suspension because of an altercation with Rudy Gobert during Golden State’s in-season tournament loss to Minnesota.
Green has served his suspension, and he is eligible to return for the tournament round-robin finale on Tuesday.
The Warriors have won two of their past three games after a six-game losing streak. The Kings are opening a four-game homestand after their 4-2 trip that was temporarily derailed by consecutive losses to the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Kings ended the trip by beating Minnesota on Friday.
“We had two uncharacteristic games for ourselves,” Sacramento forward Harrison Barnes said of the back-to-back games in New Orleans. “So just to bounce back, finish out the road trip and get back home with a win was big.”
–Field Level Media