SACRAMENTO, Calif. — As the referees headed to a replay to decide if Draymond Green should be ejected for a hard hit, the Sacramento Kings took it upon themselves to regroup and make sure they didn’t lose focus down the stretch.
De’Aaron Fox and crew took over from there and gave the Kings a 2-0 series lead to win the defending NBA championships.
Fox scored 24 points and hit a rebound 3-pointer to lead the playoff newcomer Kings to their second straight win over the Golden State Warriors on Monday night, 114-106.
“I think that brought us together,” Fox said. “We hugged and said, ‘We have to win this game.’ Everyone thought he was going to be fired. When this happens, that group usually gets together and runs. But we were able to reject that.
Green closed out the game strongly with a foul on Domantas Sabinis. They became the first team in the Stephen Curry era to take a 2-0 series lead against the Warriors.
The Warriors will try to get back into the series when it shifts 90 miles southwest to San Francisco for Game 3 Thursday night.
“I hugged him,” Carrie said. “You’ll do this as long as we have… we have to stay together and lock it.”
The game heated up in the fourth quarter when Green stepped on Sabadis’ chest with 7:03 to play and was ejected for a foul.
During the review, Sacramento fans shouted boos toward Green, who waved his arms, held his hands to his ears and shouted cheers while standing on his chair.
“My leg’s caught,” Green said. “For the second time in two nights. Just look at the judges. I’ve got to rest my feet somewhere. I’m not a very flexible person, so it won’t stretch that far. … I can only go so far.”
Sanibis finished the game, but coach Mike Brown said he was undergoing X-rays afterward to make sure there were no injuries to his ribs or lungs.
Now it will be up to the NBA to decide if an ejection is warranted or if Green could face a suspension.
“It was definitely a clear-2,” Brown said. “It will be interesting to see what the NBA does after they review it.
The Warriors battled back to tie the game before the Kings went on a 17-8 run to delight the towel-waving crowd.
Fox’s 3-pointer made it 107-101 with 2:17 to play and the Kings took control from there. Davion Mitchell hit a 3 to make it 112-103 with 1:18 left.
“That big 3 in the corner was really the nail in the coffin,” Fox said of Mitchell’s shooting.
Sabinis added 24 points for Sacramento, and Malik Monk scored 18 off the bench.
Curry led the Warriors with 28 points as Golden State struggled to get going offensively, but shot 3 of 13 from 3-point range. The Warriors made 22 turnovers.
“They played better than us,” coach Steve Kerr said. They played more physical than us tonight.
The success-hungry Sacramento crowd wasn’t as loud at first as it was in the series opener as fans celebrated the franchise’s first playoff game following a record 16-season drought.
After scoring 32 points in the opener, the crowd started to get into it in the second quarter thanks to another spark from Monk. Monk hit three 3-pointers in the first 2:04 to fuel a 23-8 run that turned a six-point deficit into a nine-point lead.
Golden State fought back and tied it at 3 on Curry before allowing the final six points of the quarter to go 58-52 at halftime.
The Kings built the lead to 14 points in the third quarter before the Warriors scored eight in a row. Sacramento led 83-75 heading into the fourth.
SLOPPY start
The teams got off to a poor start with nine turnovers each in the first quarter. The 18 combined turnovers in the first century were the most in any game over six seasons and the most in a playoff game since at least the 2001-02 season.
The Kings missed their first 11 3-pointers before Fox scored one late in the first.
Important advice
Warriors: Andrew Wiggins returned to the starting lineup for the second game after missing more than two months to deal with an undisclosed family matter. Wiggins scored 22 points. … Golden State committed five fouls in the first 1:42 of the third quarter.
Kings: Sacramento’s 41 points in the second quarter marked the eighth time a team has scored at least 40 points in a quarter in a playoff game against Army in the Kerr era.
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