It was worth the wait. The most highly anticipated game in 17 years held up to the hype. DOCO was rocking all day and roaring into the night. It was all nice and a great time, but just like the Kings, let’s turn our focus to Game 2 and see what the Kings can do to keep home court advantage with a 2-0 series lead.
Game 1 went about as expected coming into the game. The Warriors shot 50 3’s, turned it over 15 times, and Steph had an amazing 30 piece. The Kings had Fox go off for 38 and Monk chip in 32. We’ve seen it all season for the Sacramento squad. 6-7 people have the ability to score 30 Points, and in game 1 it happened to be Monk. Don’t be surprised if Monk has a modest 12 Points or so and it’s Harrison Barnes who goes for 30 tonight.
The Kings won the Points in the Paint battle 60-44, but let’s look more into that number. The Warriors held Sacramento to just 17-of-28 (60.7%) shooting in the Restricted Area, compared to shooting 17-of-22 (77.3%) in the area themselves. Kevon Looney and Draymond Green both did a fantastic job contesting shots at the rim, and they made life difficult for the Kings inside, especially Sabonis.
Where the Kings really took advantage was in the floater area. I said it coming into the series that the Kings should feast here, and they really took advantage of the soft spot in the Warriors defense. They went 13-of-27 (48.1%) in the Non-Restricted Paint area, compared to the Warriors 5-of-12 (41.7%). A 16-point difference in the floater area is a huge advantage for the Kings and allows them the leeway to be down a few 3-point FG’s.
The number that really stood out was the Kings 17 Offensive Rebounds. To put it bluntly, this is not normal for the Kings. They were 23rd in the NBA during the regular season with 9.5 offensive boards and 19th with 13.3 2nd Chance Points per game. To grab 17 and get 21 putback points is huge for so many reasons. Let’s look a little more into why that 17 Offensive Rebounds is such an intriguing number.
The Kings season high in Offensive Rebounds was 22 against the Dallas Mavericks. They lost that game. Sacramento had 15 of more offensive boards 3 times this season. They lost all 3 of those games. In wins, they averaged 8.9. In losses, they averaged 10.4.
I’m not saying that I don’t want the Kings to try and grab more Offensive Rebounds tonight. I’m saying they don’t NEED to do that to win Game 2. It isn’t a strength that they rely on where if the Warriors do a better job limiting them the Kings will be rattled, looking for other ways to score. If the Warriors want to put all of their focus on limiting the Kings 2nd chance looks, then it may result in slowing them down just enough where they don’t get as many transition looks. What I will be looking for is this. Can the Kings be better than they were in the regular season in a different stat category?
I’ve said it all season and I’ll say it again. The Kings offense is so versatile and we could see them win Game 2 with completely different stats. A key will be to continue to win the non-Steph minutes, which the Kings did a great job of doing in Game 1 by going +14 in the 11:34 minutes Steph didn’t play. With Poole questionable, there may be less non-Steph minutes to go around, but if the Kings can keep winning those minutes at that clip, they’ll put themselves in a great position.
The Playoffs are all about adjustments. The Warriors may backdoor the Kings to death tonight to counter how they were covering the 3’s so tightly. Sabonis could start taking and making that mid-range shot that is wide-open (he shot 46.1% there on the season, let ‘em fly big fella). Either way we are in for a great series, and I can’t wait to see part 2 tonight.