The Kings and Warriors head back to Sacramento for the pivotal Game 5 in what seems like the breaking point for this series. Technically it’s not a must win for the Kings, but it would be ideal to avoid a must win scenario heading back to Chase Center on Friday. Let’s see what the Kings can do to maintain their home-court advantage.
The main storyline heading into this one is De’Aaron Fox and his finger. All signs are pointing towards him playing, but the question that we won’t have until gametime is how effective he will be on the court. Fox is currently averaging 31.5 Points, 7.0 Assists, 6.0 Rebounds, and 2.5 Steals and has been the leader on the court with Sabonis struggling to get going. In an ideal world, the rest of the Kings players will step up and take some of the load off of Fox even if he does play.
Keegan Murray had a coming out party on Sunday with his 23 Points. What stood out about his impressive performance was that he wasn’t only hitting Catch and Shoot 3’s, but he was also attacking and scoring off the dribble. He shot 4-of-7 (57.1%) on his 2-point field goal attempts to go along with the 5-of-7 (71.4%) from deep. In the regular season, the Kings went 35-17 when Keegan shot at least 50% on his 2-pointers. He has the sharpshooting skills to carry a team to victory on any given night, but the team excels when he is aggressive getting to the rim as well.
Kevin Huerter is due for a bounce back game as well. He’s shot 3-of-21 (14.3%) from beyond the arc in the first 4 games. He’s too good of a shooter (40.2% 3P% in the regular season) to continue to shoot that poorly from deep for too long. Of his 20 3PA’s, 10 have been Wide-Open. All 10 have been misses. The good news is that he’s getting good looks and has the confidence to keep shooting.
Another player to keep an eye on is Malik Monk. After a big 32 Points in Game 1, Monk has struggled in the other 3 games with a FG% of 31.6%. Mike Brown is urging his players to not try and go into multiple Warriors at the rim, and Monk fits that bill of throwing up shots trying to draw fouls. Malik plays with a chaotic confidence (in the best way), but may need to harness it a little bit for Game 5.
For the Warriors, all eyes have been on Steph being Steph, Draymond’s antics, and Wiggins strong return, but Klay has been quietly playing phenomenal basketball. He’s averaging 20.0 Points, 4.0 Rebounds, and 2.7 Assists on 48.8% shooting from the field, 41.4% from 3, and a perfect 8-of-8 from the Free Throw line. He’s also showing he can still be a shutdown defender on the other side of the ball, holding the Kings to just 13-of-41 (31.7%) on shots he’s defended. We haven’t seen a ‘Klay Game’ yet, but he has been extremely steady in the first 4 games and no one would be surprised if he dropped 50 still in this series.
What I’ll be looking at specifically tonight is if the Kings can get 10 or more Steals. It was my swing stat coming into the series, and has held true through the first 4 games.
The Warriors took better care of the ball at home with 24 Turnovers in the two games in the Bay, compared to 37 Turnovers in games 1 and 2 in Sacramento. The Kings are at their best when they get stops and out in transition, and that will be key to get back to as the series shifts back home.