Kings prepare for Pelicans with clean slate, despite winless record originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – With their season on the line, the Kings will face a New Orleans Pelicans team that has bullied and embarrassed them five times in the past five months.
Not only will the Kings try to avoid going 0-6 against the same team in one season when they play New Orleans on Friday night at the Smoothie King Center in a do-or-die NBA Play-In Tournament game, but another loss would mean their 2023-2024 NBA season is over – at the hands of their season-long tormentors.
The Kings, however, don’t see it that way.
Coming off a big game against the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, Kings forward Keegan Murray said the atmosphere around the team is as good as it has been all season, adding that the team is feeling confident heading into Friday’s match. Murray shut down the idea that New Orleans’ 0-5 record against Sacramento will play a role in Friday’s big game.
“Not at all. We’re just focusing on this one game,” Murray said after practice on Thursday. “It’s a one-game series. We know if we win this, we’ll move on. Every other game doesn’t matter, it is not as important as this.”
Keegan explains why he’s not concerned about the Kings’ 0-5 regular-season record against the Pelicans entering tomorrow’s play-in game in New Orleans pic.twitter.com/OGgzlmNUlE
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) April 18, 2024
The two teams faced each other three times on December 4, once in January and the fifth and final time exactly a week ago on April 11.
Four of Sacramento’s five losses to New Orleans were by double digits, and two were by more than 30 points. The respective results were, in chronological order: 129-93, 117-112, 127-117, 133-100 and 135-123.
“We just have to be better,” Kings star guard De’Aaron Fox said Thursday. “What happened before doesn’t matter. This is a one game series. We have to go to their place and we have to get a win.
“We have to earn it against a team we haven’t beaten yet this year. You go out there and you want to prove it to yourself. This is how the chips were laid. If we want to get where we want to get, we have to be able to win this game.”
The Kings (46-36) finished as the No. 9 seed in the Western Conference, while the Pelicans (49-33) finished as the No. 8 seed. New Orleans played the No. 7 seed Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday to fight for the No. 6 playoff spot and a first-round series against the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets.
Meanwhile, Sacramento took care of business and hosted No. 10 seed Golden State, but the road to a first-round series has one more hurdle: and the Kings must face their fears against their biggest bullies.
Despite the sky-high stakes, though, Murray doesn’t feel any extra pressure, but he acknowledges that these games “feel like it’s a Game 7.”
“Not really, to be honest,” Murray said. “We go out there and it’s basketball at the end of the day, so you want to go out there and just give it your all. Ultimately, my goal is to leave the game with no regrets and I want to go into the offseason, whenever that is, with no regrets.”
Now that they have three elimination games under their belt, including Games 6 and 7 of last season’s first-round playoff series against the Warriors, along with Tuesday’s game, the Kings feel prepared for the moment.
“Yes, definitely,” Fox said when asked if the team feels ready. “Obviously we have a shootaround tomorrow, but we’re ready for it now.”
Kings coach Mike Brown feels that same confidence and believes the adversity that hit his team like a bolt of lightning during the latter part of the season has helped them prepare for a high-pressure moment.
Sacramento lost two key pieces to its offense when Kevin Huerter and Malik Monk went down with injuries. But under unfortunate circumstances, the emergence of two-player turned admirable NBA story Keon Ellis and the resurgence of third-year guard Davion Mitchell helped the Kings turn the corner at the right time.
“I think our guys are [ready],” Brown said. “Experiencing what we went through at the end of the season, where every game felt like a must-win for us, it helped us grow and get into the right mindset for future games like this.”
After the Warriors ended the Kings’ storybook season in a heartbreaking seven-game series last April, the Kings sought and got revenge two nights ago when they returned the favor to their Northern California neighbors.
While the team heads into Friday’s game with a clean slate and lets the past become a thing of the past, Mitchell is a bit licking his fingers with some revenge still on his plate.
“We’re definitely looking forward to it,” Mitchell told reporters after Tuesday’s win. “They kept beating us in the regular season. They just had our number and talked nonsense all the time, so we’re looking forward to it.
“We need our return. That’s one thing we need to get. The Warriors were a team we wanted to play just for Game 7 alone [last season]but that is a team we should definitely get.”
Brown doesn’t necessarily look at it that way, but he doesn’t care how or where his players get motivation.
“Davion said something about our last game being a revenge game. If guys feel that way, whatever motivates them or whatever gets them going,” Brown said. “I didn’t care if it was Golden State. I didn’t care if it was New Orleans. Whoever is in front of us, we have to win. And whatever motivation we need to win, I’m all for it .
