SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Warriors have played 128 playoff games — including Saturday’s first-round opener with the Kings — since 2015.
No team in the league knows the difference between playoff and regular-season basketball better than the Dubs.
So why did they stop playing it after two quarters Saturday in Sacramento?
Referees justly stop calling the soft ones in the playoffs, and the Warriors know how that difference feels — how much you can bump, ride, and push an opponent in the postseason.
On Saturday, they gave the Kings — playing their first playoff game in Sacramento since 2006 — a five-on-five lesson for the first two quarters of Game 1 of the team’s Western Conference first-round series.
That’s what made the next two quarters such a surprise.
The Kings proved to be fast learners at the same time the Warriors started coasting to the finish line.
The result was a 126-123 Kings win, a purple beam lighting the night sky, and a 1-0 Sacramento lead in the series.
Yes, it was an opening salvo, but a veteran team like the Dubs know better than to think you can win a playoff game on the road with only two quarters of playoff-level physicality.
Especially after they opened the game by knocking their opponent around.
Yes, the problem is eminently correctable, but the Warriors’ failure to see Game 1 through could prove regrettable if this series goes six or seven games.
The Warriors’ physicality issues started in the third quarter. The Kings pulled down six more offensive boards than the Warriors in the frame, turning a six-point halftime deficit into a one-point Sacramento lead going into the fourth.
The Warriors followed that with a final quarter where they attempted 19 3-pointers amid 25 total shots.
The Warriors turned into chuckers in the big moments of the game. That’s a mistake we’ve seen from their opponents over the years, but rarely the Dubs.
All those 3-point attempts, despite the team being in the bonus fewer than four minutes into the quarter. The Warriors attempted two free throws in the final 8:14 of the game, when any defensive foul would have resulted in a trip to the line.
Those two free throws didn’t even come from a drive — they resulted from Kevon Looney and Kevin Huerter becoming tied up on a perimeter screen with 2:49 to play. Not exactly a play with the intent of two points.
The Warriors did shoot 15 3-pointers in those final 8:14, though.
Were some of the looks clean and worth taking? Absolutely.
But even the wide-open 3-pointers could have been effective drives, too.
Only Curry was driving to the hoop.
Klay Thompson took a contested shot above the break, missed, and after Draymond Green pulled down a strong offensive rebound, Andrew Wiggins took an open — but rushed — shot from distance.
Wiggins said he ran out of gas in the fourth quarter. He shot the ball four times — all 3-pointers, all misses.
Kerr blamed the offensive rebounds — not the 3-point shooting — for the Warriors’ loss.
“We took some bad ones, but I didn’t think shot selection was the problem. We’re always going to be aggressive, and sometimes we’re going to take some quick ones. That’s part of who we are.”
The issue was the offensive boards. That allowed their shooters to get open.”
There is a downside to being a veteran team, though: every game takes more of a toll.
At best, the Warriors just blew a chance to play one fewer game this postseason. Not a huge deal, in the larger scheme of things.
But is there a larger scheme?
Because, at worst, the playoff team with the worst road record just squandered a great chance to win a necessary road game — something even the dynastic Warriors cannot take for granted this postseason.
