Good and heady plays were offset by boneheaded ones, sometimes in the immediate aftermath. Instead, he acted like a Harlem Globetrotter for most of the night and his team can’t afford such an approach. Jordan Poole has gotten a lot of slack in a lot of different spaces this season, but he signed a pretty sizable contract in the preseason that says he should be culpable for his role in the Warriors’ success. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)Ĭurry again looked casual, as he did in Game 5 for large stretches, but he wouldn’t be saved by his teammates. Sacramento's Malik Monk reacts after making a basket next to Golden State's Stephen Curry in Game 6 of their NBA playoffs first-round series at Chase Center in San Francisco on April 28, 2023.

If you didn’t know any better, with the way the Warriors approached the game, it wasn’t obvious which team was the playoff-tested bunch versus the novices. He kept pushing the pace, in the set offense or after baskets or turnovers, and it kept the Warriors on their heels. De’Aaron Fox’s injury slowed him down only so much the injured finger on his shooting hand didn’t stop him from getting wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted. It felt reminiscent of the first two games when the Kings ran, and ran, and ran some more.

It was evident from the tip, when the Kings took an early lead and never quite looked back. The Warriors had everything going for them headed into Game 6: They believed they took the heart from the upstart Kings with a Game 5 win in Sacramento, and did not treat them with the appropriate respect coming into Friday. Perhaps an easy way to see if a reigning champion has lost its edge is watching them squander opportunities to close out a series.įor the Warriors, a champion’s poise has been replaced by an arrogance that’s almost insulting, but if we’ve been watching them all season it shouldn’t be a surprise. Here are five takeaways from Friday’s games.

Golden State and Sacramento will dance again Sunday afternoon - the Lakers earned the right to wait. We are still one win away from either a playoff series with historical implications or one that strikes notes of history from over two decades ago. But the Lakers treated the evening with the appropriate focus and put the Grizzlies out of their misery with the biggest playoff win of the first round. Curry’s Warriors gave the Sacramento Kings life as the Kings dominated the champions on their home floor with a decisive win.

Warriors the broken code lost stars