Good morning. Let’s basketball.

Worship of the Golden Calf; Claude Lorrain; 1653

This was supposed to have been set up perfectly for the Golden State Warriors. In the 9-10 play-in game, they’d face a Sacramento Kings team in freefall on a court in which Stephen Curry dropped 50 in a Game 7 less than 12 months ago, a bus ride away from home. From there, they’d be one more win away from a first-round series against a relatively inexperienced Oklahoma City squad. They’d avoid the Nuggets for as long as possible and give themselves a chance for another magical run.

Instead, a shaky first half against Sacramento turned into a second half nightmare. The Kings ran the 2023-24 Warriors off the floor, down the freeway and back into the cool confines of the Bay Area 118-94.

Keon Ellis and a constant stream of doubles and traps kept Steph quiet (he took only 16 shots). Klay Thompson went 0/10 in what could be his final game as a Warrior. Draymond Green was a non-factor outside of a couple of representatively good defensive plays. The legends of this franchise just didn’t have it. And when you’re down here in the play-in, not having it for just one night can put your team to bed.

For as much as the Warriors didn’t have it, though, give massive credit to the Kings from bringing every bit of intention and energy they could muster. The defensive gameplan was attainable for this rotation — a very short rotation for Mike Brown, by the way — and they executed it. It became clear early that the refs would leave a light touch on the game, so Sacramento stayed aggressive keeping Curry and Thompson off of their paths and challenging shots in the paint. The Warriors tried to do the same with the Kings’ attackers — De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis were getting mauled just as much as the Warriors were — but Sacramento had three big advantages: the offensive glass (15-8 advantage for Sacramento), transition (12-6 advantage for Sacramento) and the three-point line (18-10 advantage for Sacramento, led by Keegan Murray, whose chanted name will ring around inside Warriors’ fans heads for a couple days).

The Kings were better than the Warriors all season, and even without Malik Monk and Kevin Huerter, they were better on Tuesday. Golden State, frankly, seemed caught a little off-guard about how quickly this particular championship attempt ended.

As you likely know, Klay is a free agent, having not reached an extension agreement last offseason. I think Thompson will stick around and finish his career with Curry, Green and Kerr. We’ll see. This would be a brutal way to say goodbye.

Zoinks

In his first NBA postseason action ever, Zion Williamson had the game of his life. Forty points on 17/27 shooting, 11 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal, a block. And he was doing it going toe-to-toe against one of the greatest of all-time. Erasing narratives and talking points about himself.

And then, with 3:19 remaining in the fourth, Zion scored his final bucket of the night to tie the game at 95. He limped a bit back up the court and motioned to the bench that he needed to come out. He went directly to the locker room and didn’t return.

The Lakers went on to re-establish control and win. L.A. will face Denver in the 2-7 series. The Nuggets have beaten the Lakers in eight consecutive games. But several of them have been close, so there’s that.

In addition to Williamson going out, Brandon Ingram notably did not close the game. Willie Green subbed Ingram out with 7:38 remaining and the Pelicans down 11. B.I. never got called back in, even after Zion left the game. Ingram was just 4/12 from the floor and had gotten burned by Rui Hachimura a few times. But with C.J. McCollum struggling (4/15 from the floor and just 1/9 from deep), leaving offensive creation on the bench was surprising from Green. So was the team’s insistence to keep taking quick twos in the closing minute despite needing to close a 4-point gap.

The Pelicans have one more chance to make it to the playoffs as they’ll host the Kings on Friday. New Orleans has beaten Sacramento five times in five tries this season … with an average margin of +19. But with Zion’s status unknown, Green’s trust in Ingram questionable and the Pelicans seemingly unable to win at home these days … we’ll see.

One more note on the Lakers, who won despite LeBron and AD combining to shoot 12/36: D’Angelo Russell’s shooting is so valuable to this team’s offense, for better or worse. He was on fire as L.A. built their early leads and far less visible as New Orleans bridged the gap. Russell was a team-high +16 in his 37 minutes … and it definitely felt like it.

Good Night, Blake

Blake Griffin officially announced his retirement. One of the more thrilling players of his generation, and one who turned into a very well-rounded player that was a few bad breaks from truly competing for a championship at his peak. And that dude could dunk the hell out of the ball.

He was the kind of soul-snatching dunker that made other well-known soul-snatchers raise their eyebrows.

Great Moments in David Kahn

Thanks to everyone who submitted Great Moments in David Kahn yesterday. Our three winners of Hanif Abdurraqib’s new book There’s Always This Year are:

• Mike Q.

• Jacob

• Patrick S. (for a moment I had forgotten!)

I’ll be reaching out to your email address on file to get you copies of the book.

My three top Great Moments in David Kahn are:

3. Go Away, Kevin Love

Kahn and his boss Glen Taylor insisted on not offering Kevin Love, the best Timberwolf in a decade at that point, a 5-year max rookie extension despite Love wanting to commit to a mediocre Minnesota team long-term. The party line was that they wanted to keep the 5-year designated rookie max for Ricky Rubio. Love got so mad that he insisted that the fourth year on the extension they would offer was a player option. All this nonsense led to Love leaving earlier than necessary. Alienating your best young player? Not recommended!

Apparently Kahn gave Love the contract offer as Love was getting out of the shower after a loss.

2. Drafting a 26-Year-Old

David Kahn bought a second-round pick in 2011 to use on a relatively unknown sleeper who had got some buzz on the NBA Draft internet that week, Tanguy Ngombo. There was shockingly little information about Ngombo except that he had recently joined the Qatari league. The problem: Ngombo was actually 26 years old and thus ineligible to be drafted. Whoops!

1. “Manna From Heaven”

One of my favorite YouTube videos of all-time. From “we have breakfast and lunch now” to “Manna from Heaven” to the dismissive “good luck” from C-Webb. Incredible.

The Timberwolves are in such better hands now.

Schedule

The East play-in has arrived. Both times Eastern.

Heat at Sixers, 7, ESPN — winner faces Knicks in playoffs
Hawks at Bulls, 9:30, ESPN — loser is eliminated

Loser of the early game hosts the winner of the late game on Friday for a chance to face the Celtics in the playoffs.

Links

I joined another 🏀 5x5 | Royce Webb Substack writer round-up, this one regarding play-in stakes.

🏀 5x5 | Royce Webb

HIGH STAKES: NBA Superstars & Teams with the Most to Gain — and Lose — This Week

Read more

a day ago · 16 likes · 1 comment · Royce Webb

Kawhi Leonard is the mysterious 12th player on the USA Basketball men’s Olympic roster. Sheesh.

It sounds like Giannis remains a couple weeks away from playing. Indiana has a real shot to take early control of their series with Milwaukee.

Donte DiVincenzo was not going to place in the Most Improved Player award balloting, but it’s indeed incomprehensible that he is ineligible for the title on account of not playing at least 20 minutes in 65 games. He played 81 of 82 games overall, but in 19 of those he played less than 20 minutes. Worth noting that he played at least 40 minutes 12 times and finished the season with 2,300 minutes. The easy fix here is to have multiple criteria to reach eligibility for postseason awards: a minimum number of games played (like the current 65) or 2,000 minutes overall and a lower minimum number of games played (say, 52). MVP and All-NBA aren’t the only awards here.

Not basketball but I found the brilliant Ben Thompson’s piece on Marques Brownlee’s review of a dumb new AI wearable and the subscriber model to be, well, brilliant.

Kelly Dwyer previews the East play-in.

Alright, that’s all. Be excellent to each other.