Steph Curry Hailed for Dominance as Warriors Beat Kings in Draymond Green's Return
The Golden State Warriors were one of the best home teams in the NBA during the regular season and one of the worst teams on the road. That trend has continued in the 2023 NBA playoffs thus far.
Led by another strong showing from Steph Curry (32 points, five rebounds, four assists) and Draymond Green's interesting performance off the bench (12 rebounds, 10 rebounds, seven assists, two steals, 3-of-14 from the field), the Dubs beat the Sacramento Kings 126-125 on Sunday, evening the Western Conference first-round series at two games apiece.
The home team has won every game in the series through four games.
This was one of the better games of the playoffs thus far, and the Kings played well enough to win. De'Aaron Fox put up 38 points, nine rebounds and five assists for the Kings, while rookie Keegan Murray (23 points, seven rebounds) had by far his best outing of the series.
But Sunday was ultimately about the Dubs. One of the most fascinating subplots in this game was Green coming off the bench after he was suspended for Game 3.
Green returned to the starting lineup to start the second half, and his defense on Fox helped fuel the Warriors, leading to a 37-23 advantage in the third quarter.
And then there was Curry, who always provides fireworks on offense and has NBA Twitter loving the show:
Curry was nearly the scapegoat in this one, though, as he called a timeout when the Warriors didn't have any remaining with 42 seconds on the clock and the Dubs up five. Malik Monk made the technical free throw, Fox hit a three-pointer and suddenly the Kings were down only one.
The Kings got the ball back with just 10 seconds remaining, but Harrison Barnes' potential game-winning three rimmed out and the Dubs held on.
They say a playoff series doesn't begin until a road team wins a game, so the most exciting first-round series theoretically hasn't begun yet. The Kings had the chance to put a dagger in the defending champs in Game 3 without Green in the lineup and again in a back-and-forth Game 4 but were unable to do so.
But the Warriors are just 11-32 on the road this season (including the playoffs), and at least one more game in this series—and potentially two—will be played in Sacramento.
Golden State held serve at home. But Curry, Green, Klay Thompson and the other Warriors vets have to find a way to win a game away from home to get past the pesky and exciting Kings.
