After the regular season, the Warriors and Kings will meet again in the 2023 NBA Playoffs, exactly one year after their first-round meeting. They won’t have a minimum of four games to settle their differences in the court this time. The Kings and Warriors, ranked ninth and tenth in the Western Conference, will meet in a Play-in Tournament matchup on Tuesday. The winner advances to the next round, while the loser advances to elimination.
The loser goes on an early vacation and watches the rest of the playoffs from a couch, while the winner advances to the next stage of the Play-in against the losing team in the other matchup between the No. 7 New Orleans Pelicans and the No. 8 Los Angeles Lakers.
Warriors star forward Draymond Green knows better than to look ahead of the Kings. He even expressed just how badly he desires to kill Sacramento’s NBA title aspirations, while still claiming it’s just going to be business as usual for him and Golden State.
“It’s always a playoff-type game, Green said about the looming do-or-die showdown against the Kings (h/t Kendra Andrews of ESPN). “Their fans want to light the beam and see us lose and beat the crap out of us, and we want to beat the crap out of them … it has brewed into (a NorCal rivalry) but for us it’s another game that we have to win”
Green was dead on in suggesting the emotion is mutual for both parties. The Kings and their fans want nothing this Tuesday but to beat Golden State as a payback for last year’s loss at the hands of the Dubs. That’s not to mention Green’s infraction in that series that led to a one-game ban in Game 3 for stomping in the chest of King big man Domantas Sabonis in Game 2.
The Warriors escaped Green’s suspension as they dodged going down the dreaded 0-3 series hole by winning Game 3 without Green before winning three of the following four games to complete the comeback and progress to the second round. In Game 7 of the Kings series, Stephen Curry blasted off for 50 points on 20/38 shooting from the field to lead Golden State to a 120-100 victory on the road. That was the last time the King saw the Warriors in a game beyond the regular season. Will Golden State be as dominant this time around?
The Warriors and the Kings met four times in the 2023-24 NBA regular season and split the series. Golden State demonstrated early dominance in the contest, as the Dubs won the first two meetings’ they defeated Sacramento on the road on Oct. 27, 122-114 then at home on Nov. 1, 102-101. However, the Kings turned the tables on Golden State in the final two matches. Sacramento pulled down Curry and company at home on Nov. 28, 124-123, assuring that there won’t be a sweep happening in the head-t0-head. Then the Kings got even with the Warriors with a 134-133 triumph in San Francisco on Jan. 25.
Based on those four matchups, fans can expect a tight struggle between Golden State and Sacramento coming Tuesday. Outside of the first meeting, the results of the subsequent games in the showdown were each decided by just a point.
The Warriors enter the Play-in Tournament game having won four of their past five outings, while the Kings are in shakier form, as they have gone only 1-3 in their last four battles.
