If you like high-scoring, fast-paced, offense-heavy, and not to mention high-stakes basketball, you’ve come to the right series.
The third-seeded Sacramento Kings (48-34) have been one of the year's feel-good stories, having ended the longest playoff drought in NBA history. Standing in their way are the defending champs and sixth-seeded Golden State Warriors (44-38) who took an uphill climb toward the playoffs. These two clubs boast potent offense, highlighted by incredible shot-making.
Most compelling storyline
The draw of this series is the near-similar styles of the Kings and Warriors and the high drama of an up-and-coming team versus a battered but not beaten defending champion.
As mentioned, these two teams enjoy putting up points on the board in a hurry. The Kings ended up with the highest offensive rating in league history at 118.6. They have a plethora of schemes in the pick-and-roll, spearheaded by the brilliance of their two stars, De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis. The two are adept at reading defenses and making the right play on the fly. Surrounded by abled shooters like Malik Monk, Kevin Huerter, and Keegan Murray, their offense seems unstoppable at times. At the helm of the resurgent Kings is, of course, former Golden State assistant Mike Brown, who has taken a few schemes he had in the Bay and applied them to Sacramento.
The Kings’ defense is their Achilles’ heel. Their 116.0 rating is 24th in the league. They also allow a whopping 118.1 points per game, ranking 25th overall. The defense will play a critical factor, but then again, they’ll simply try to outscore their opponent. They might lose a game or two because of their suspect defense but when the offense is clicking, there’ll be an avalanche of points.
So if the Kings will solely try to outshoot the Warriors, you could also argue that the Warriors will try to do the same. They put up 118.9 points per game, second only to the Kings who score 120.7 points on average. They also belong in the top 10 in terms of offensive rating at 115.1.
The Warriors’ scoring will be needed especially on the road where they’ve had an 11-30 record for the year. They allow 10.8 more points away from home and you can bet they’ll severely be tested in the raucous Golden 1 Center in Sacramento. So when push comes to shove, expect Steph Curry and Klay Thompson to attempt to shoot their team to victory.
Thompson, in particular, has been playing bonkers. He emerged as the league’s 3-point king, amassing 301 triples and becoming just the third player in history to reach the 300 milestone alongside Curry and James Harden. He’s had four games this season where he made at least 10 3-pointers. Is there any more doubt that the Klay of old is back?
X-factor
The mother of all X-factors is Andrew Wiggins. The Golden State star of last year’s postseason run missed the last 25 games of the regular season due to a personal matter. Reports say that he will come off the bench in Game 1 and log in around 20-25 minutes.
More than his contributions on offense as an outside shooter and slasher, Wiggins is a proven defender. He is the Warriors’ best perimeter defender outside of Draymond Green. His length and versatility will be key in all of the Kings’ strategies of pacing and screening. Plus, it would also seem likely that he will be tasked to slow down Fox in the endgame considering that the Sacramento guard is the best clutch performer this season.
With Wiggins in tow, the Warriors can deploy their beloved lineup of Curry, Thompson, Green, and Kevon Looney or even have some version with Jordan Poole as another perimeter threat. Wiggins in the lineup can definitely stifle the Kings’ explosive offense.
Winning blueprint
Playoff experience may play a huge factor in this series.
The Kings are a young team who hasn’t seen a lot of the bright lights. This is Fox’s first playoff series while Sabonis has only played in 13 postseason games. In comparison, the Warriors’ Big 3 of Curry, Thompson, and Green have won 93 playoff games together and have four championship trophies to show for it.
The Warriors are one of those the-seed-doesn’t-fully-encapsulate-their-strength kinds of teams. They can immediately turn it up when it matters most and besides, they only need to win four times against the Kings and 16 games in total to win another title. That being said, they’ll need an otherworldly playoff run from Curry to get another championship. Curry remains the barometer of just how good the Warriors can be this postseason.
And for the Kings, they’ll have to play their style by hook or by crook. The NBA adage of the pace slowing down in the playoffs will be tested once again. The Kings love to play fast and shoot fast and you can be sure that the Warriors will try to use their championship defense to put everything to a halt. Fox and Sabonis have to lead the charge so that Sacramento’s role players can excel. And when the game is on the line, the Fox that led the league in clutch with a total of 194 points while shooting 52.9 percent from the field will have to show up.
In the end, it’ll boil down to who has more to lose in this series. Is it the Kings who just entered the playoffs after 16 losing seasons? Or is it the defending champions who have three future Hall of Famers in the mix who are looking to add another ring?
Expect this series to be a wild shootout in the West.
