Warriors get rare road win, take series lead over Kings

Stephen Curry fired 31 points and dished out 8 assists, and Klay Thompson added 25 points as the visiting Golden State Warriors moved one victory away from the Western Conference semifinals by defeating the Sacramento Kings, 123-116, on Wednesday, April 26 (Thursday, April 27, Manila time).

Draymond Green scored 21 points and Andrew Wiggins had 20, while Kevon Looney grabbed 22 rebounds as the Warriors took a 3-2 lead by becoming the first road team to win in their best-of-seven series. Golden State had just 11 road victories in the regular season.

The No. 7 Warriors will return home for Game 6 on Friday at San Francisco for their first chance to advance.

De’Aaron Fox had 24 points, 9 assists, and 7 rebounds for the third-seeded Kings despite playing with an avulsion fracture at the tip of the index finger on his left shooting hand. The injury occurred during Game 4 on Sunday.

Domantas Sabonis and Malik Monk each scored 21 points for Sacramento, with Sabonis grabbing 10 rebounds. Harrison Barnes scored 13 points for the Kings, who have lost three consecutive games in the series after winning the first two at home.

The home team appeared to have the advantage in the series yet again when the Kings led by 10 points in the first quarter. 

However, the Warriors cut the advantage to 36-33 at the end of the period and took a 60-56 lead into halftime.

Golden State then put up 39 points in the third quarter by making 15 field goals and shooting 55.6% from the field and took a 99-90 advantage into the final period.

The Warriors led 105-93 with 9:08 remaining after a driving layup by Curry. But the Kings pulled within 107-103 on a three-pointer by Monk with 6:55 remaining.

Sacramento was within a point on three occasions, including 111-110 with 4:14 remaining before Golden State went up 117-112 with 2:10 remaining on a high-arching layup from Curry.

While Monk and Fox missed three-pointers for the Kings near the one-minute mark, Curry completed a three-point play for 122-114 lead with 22.4 seconds remaining. – Rappler.com