De’Aaron Fox scored 24 points and made a backbreaking 3-pointer that led the playoff newcomer Kings to a second straight victory over the defending champion Golden State Warriors, 114-106, on Monday night in Sacramento.
The Kings closed the game strong after Golden State’s Draymond Green was ejected for a flagrant foul and became the first team to take a 2-0 series lead over the Warriors in the Stephen Curry era.
The Warriors will try to get back into the series when it shifts less than 90 miles southwest to San Francisco for Game 3 on Thursday night.
The game got heated in the fourth when Green stomped on Domantas Sabonis’ chest with 7:03 to play, leading to an ejection for a flagrant foul.
During the review, the fans in Sacramento yelled derogatory chants toward Green, who egged them on by waving his hands, holding a hand to his ear calling for louder cheers and standing on a chair.
The Warriors fought back to tie the score before the Kings went on a 17-8 run to run away with it to the delight of the towel-waving crowd.
Fox’s 3-pointer made it 107-101 with 2:17 to play and the Kings were in control from there. Davion Mitchell put it away with another 3 that made it 112-103 with 1:18 left.
Sabonis added 24 points for Sacramento and Malik Monk scored 18 off the bench.
Curry led the Warriors with 28 points but made just 3 of 13 from 3-point range as Golden State struggled to get going offensively. The Warriors committed 22 turnovers.
76ers 96, Nets 84 >> Tyrese Maxey scored 33 points, Joel Embiid and Tobias Harris had 20 apiece, and the host Philadelphia took a 2-0 lead in their Eastern Conference playoff series. Embiid, the two-time NBA scoring champion, was quiet offensively, going 6 of 11 from the floor, but he did just about everything else. The MVP finalist had 19 rebounds, 7 assists and 3 blocks. Harris had 12 rebounds. James Harden scored only eight points.