Small victories

There’s a reason Mike Brown won Coach of the Year, folks, and it’s not just because the Kings made the playoffs. (Although it is, mostly, because the Kings made the damn playoffs.) Brown pushed all the right buttons all year long, and he did it again with his team’s season on the line on Friday night.

With Domantas Sabonis in foul trouble, Kevin Huerter bricking away (at least until late in the game), Harrison Barnes not making much of an impact, and nothing left to lose, Brown trotted out a lineup that had seen exactly zero minutes together all season, and played it for almost a third of the game: De’Aaron Fox, Malik Monk, Terence Davis, Keegan Murray, and Trey Lyles were on the court together for 17 minutes in Game 6, and that group shot 56.3% from the field and 47.1% from deep. They needed every bit of that shooting performance, as even despite it they still managed to outscore the Warriors by "just" six points during that stretch. (Although, that is nearly an 18-point-per-game margin, which is pretty damn good.)

Quick side note: Look at their beautiful shot chart. They went 10-15 in the paint and 8-17 from beyond the arc. Gorgeous stuff.