Monk, Fox silence Chase crowd with a 118-99 must-win Game 6 victory over the Warriors

SAN FRANCISCO -- Malik Monk scored 28 points off the bench and De'Aaron Fox added 26 as the Sacramento Kings overcame Golden State's homecourt advantage to come away with a 118-99 victory Friday night, forcing a deciding Game 7 in their NBA Western Conference playoff series.

The Kings overcame one of the most imposing home court advantage to come away with the win. Golden State is 35-8 at home this season.

Sacramento never trailed after the opening minute of the second half. The teams will meet in a deciding Game 7 on Sunday afternoon.

"Everybody is down right now," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "The game just ended. This is all part of it. We've been through everything. We've won a Game 7 on the road before in the playoffs. We know we can do it but we've got to regroup and kind of fill up the cup and get our energy ready for Sunday afternoon."  

Despite foul trouble for Sacramento star Domantas Sabonis, who fouled out, the Kings rolled to a 19-point, 116-97 advantage with 3:45 to go in the fourth quarter on a Monk layup to send the sellout crowd to the exit.

Sabonis had seven points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 5:17 left.  

Rookie Keegan Murray scored 15 points with four 3-pointers and grabbed 12 rebounds for his first playoff double-double, and the No. 3-seeded Kings withstood every scoring surge the defending champions made on their home court and shined in nearly every facet of this one with their special season on the line.

Kevin Huerter, struggling with his shot all series — 20 of 52 coming into the game — hit a 3 with 6:23 to go and another with 4:58 left as Sacramento gave the state capital one more chance to Light the Beam.

Steph Curry had tried to rally the Warriors, scoring 11 of his team-high 29 points at the start of the fourth quarter. But only two other Warriors scored in double figures -- Klay Thompson had 22 and Wiggins 13.  But the two were an icy cold 13-of-33 from the field and Golden State shot 37.6 percent as a team -- their worst homecourt shooting night of the season.

The Warriors, among the league's best shooting teams from the free throw line, missed 10 shots from the charity stripe with Curry misfiring on three.

"I thought we played hard but we didn't play smart," said Warriors center Kevon Loony.  "We didn't execute our game plan. We know what we needed to do to win. All the small things, getting back in transition, the box-outs, the turnovers, different things like that, we didn't execute."  

Taking advantage of defensive shortfalls from Golden State's Donte DiVincenzo, the Kings successfully challenged the Warriors reserve guard all night long. 

Monk continued to punish Golden State, scoring almost at will. He had 11 points in the quarter to power Sacramento to a 90-80 lead headin into the fourth quarter and keeping the Chase home crowd silent.

Maybe it was the 5 p.m. tip-off time, but the Warriors offense was in a funk for the entire first half. They shot an anemic 35.6 percent from the field and 27.8 percent from the 3-point line.

"I thought the Kings were the aggressor from the start," Kerr said. "You know, putting a lot of pressure on us defensively and we didn't execute early in the game. There were four or five plays early where we just took quick shots or didn't pass the ball to the open guy, and I think at halftime we had eight assists. You know, so we just never got our rhythm. We never got into our game."  

Their icy touch even carried over to the free throw line with the normally dependable Curry missing two as the team hit on 14-19 in the first half.

While the Kings shooting touch was also a bit icy, their team speed kept Golden State's defense on its heels and the solid play off their bench powered Sacramento to a 58-51 halftime advantage.  Monk scored11 points and Trey Lyles 9 as the Kings second unit outscored their Warriors counterparts 28-10 in the half.

Thompson led Golden State with 16 points but he was a volume shooter, hitting on just 6-of-14 from their field. Curry added 11 points, but Wiggins hit on just 2-of-7 for 4 points.

Golden State also took advantage of 12 Kings turnovers. Fox scored 10 points but had 4 turnovers with his bandaged finger on his shooting hand. Sabonis added 7 points and pulled down 6 rebounds.