Getty Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors and Malik Monk of the Sacramento Kings.
On Friday night, the Golden State Warriors failed.
They failed to close out the Sacramento Kings in Game 6. They failed to win a game at home. They failed to get a win at Chase Center, where they’ve been elite all season. They failed to avoid a Game 7 at Golden 1 Center, where Kings fans will be going absolutely nuts.
Sacramento simply outplayed them at every turn, running out to a dominant victory. After the game, Stephen Curry spoke about Malik Monk, who has acted as an “X-factor” for Sacramento all series, and was great in Game 6.
“He’s been an X-factor in their wins, and when we’ve contained him, I think most of those games, we’ve come out with the win,” Curry said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “Even in Game 5, he got hot a little bit down the stretch, but in the first half, we kind of kept him in check. So, it’s just a matter of locking in on his energy. He comes in, he plays aggressive, [and] he loves to score. He was hitting his threes tonight. We kind of gave him to me open looks. So, you obviously have to key in on him. And the way that they mixed up their lineup, he’s featured a lot more. So, [we] got to make the adjustments.”
Monk put up some great numbers for the Kings in Game 6, helping lead them to a win. He put up 28 points–shooting 8-of-14 from the field and 3-of-6 from deep–seven rebounds, four assists, one steal, and two blocks.
As for Curry, he wasn’t as efficient as he normally is in Game 6. The Warriors superstar dropped 29 points, four rebounds, five assists, two steals, and one block. However, he shot just 9-of-21 overall. (But he did shoot 5-of-12 from deep.)
Kevon Looney on How Kings’ Disrupted Warriors
Meanwhile, Warriors big man Kevon Looney spoke about how the Kings were able to break down his squad and earn the win.
“I think it affected it some, just because it was kind of a new lineup that we haven’t seen this series,” Looney said via NBC Sports Bay Area. “We kind of had to make some adjustments [with] how we were going to guard it and guard the pick-n-roll. Different things like that. We had been playing a certain way the whole series. So, it took some adjustment. Some time to get used to. It’s something that we got to watch film and see how we want to execute better against the small lineup, but I think we can make the adjustments.”
Steve Kerr Sends Message on Warriors’ Jordan Poole
In addition, head coach Steve Kerr spoke about Jordan Poole’s performance post-game. Poole failed to find any sort of rhythm in Game 6.
“Jordan never really going tonight, unfortunately,” Kerr said via the NBA Interviews YouTube channel. “He got a little frustrated early — he had a couple plays where he didn’t get calls — and he was trying to attack but couldn’t couldn’t quite shake free. So, just a frustrating night for him.”
