The series — and the pressure — shifts back to Sacramento.
With the Golden State Warriors’ sketchy, 126-125 win over the Kings, the first-round series is now the only one in the NBA that’s knotted at two games apiece.
It’s a best-of-three at this point. The question, now, is if the Warriors, with an 11-32 road record this season, can win one at Golden 1 Center.
ESPN’s Tim Legler joined Murph and Mac on Monday morning and broke down why he expects the Warriors to win this series. Listen below:
Legler’s logic began with the foundation of what he expects to stay consistent. De’Aaron Fox and Stephen Curry will both play well and Klay Thompson will “have his moments.”
Out of the rest of the guys on the court, Legler singled out Kevon Looney as an “X-factor” for the Warriors. He thinks his ability to get well-timed offensive rebounds could be the difference.
“I think Kevon Looney is going to be a guy that we are going to be talking about if the Warriors win this series,” Legler said. “I think that Kevon Looney is a guy with his offensive rebounding and coming up with those key plays and extra possessions, is a major X-factor in this series.”
He expects that the pressure in Sacramento for Game 5 could, as they say, burst pipes.
The Kings haven’t experienced those stakes in a long time, and Legler thinks it could get to them. He acknowledged the Warriors’ horrible road record this season, but thinks that pressure will be paramount.
“Sacramento has never felt the kind of pressure they are going to feel if the Golden State Warriors are in a one-possession game in the fourth quarter of game five, in Sacramento,” Legler said. “Those jumpers are not going to flow quite as freely out of Sacramento. Your elbow tightens up a little bit because of the ramifications and the people in the building.
“You’re gonna feel the weight of the moment. The ramifications of not closing that game out, and then you go on the road to get closed out? They’re gonna start to feel that if they don’t win game five. So whether the Warriors can win game five or takes the seventh game, I do think they’re going to win one of these two games and win their home game.”
Legler’s belief stems from Curry.
He said he doesn’t believe the Kings have done enough to bother Curry in this series and if that continues, Sacramento will lose.
“The eason I feel comfortable saying the Warriors are going to win, I still don’t think Sacramento has done really anything to disrupt the rhythm of Steph Curry,” Legler said. “And that is the key to the entire thing. And if you can’t do that, they haven’t done it through four games.
“I don’t know that they’re going to figure out something to do that going forward. And if that’s the case, and if that guy’s operating in a comfort zone, come on, man. My money’s gonna bet on the team that’s been in every possible situation you can imagine for the last eight years.”
You could make a compelling argument that the Kings put significant pressure on Curry in the first two games, and his shooting struggles in Game 2 were brought on by a strong defensive performance from the likes of Davion Mitchell and others.
Curry was 9-of-21 from the floor and 3-of-13 from 3-point range in that game with 28 points, but has made scored 30 plus and made five or more 3-pointers in all of the other games on efficient deep shooting (17-of-37 — 45 percent).