Light The Beam: The Kings Get Their Revenge And End Both The Warriors Season And Potentially The Golden State Dynasty

Ezra Shaw. Getty Images.

Man, that has to feel great. After one of the best seasons in franchise history and finally breaking the playoff drought, the Kings unfortunately were rewarded by a date with Steph Curry & Co. After a hard fought 6 games, the Kings returned home for a Game 7 with all the momentum in the world. Their magical season was poised to continue, and they were going to take down a giant along the way.

Then Steph Curry had 50 points and suddenly their worst fear became a reality. A Game 7 loss at home is never easy, no matter what round it comes in. Those are the games you play for, to be able to have homecourt with your season on the line. 

Fast forward to today, and the Kings were offered a chance at redemption. Not quite a "Game 7" in the traditional sense, but very much a situation where they were once again at home with their season on the line against Steph Curry & Co. Unlike the LAL/NO game, losing this game actually ends your season, so it's about as close to a Game 7 as you can get without actually being a Game 7. 

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So for the Kings to come out and wire-to-wire beat that ass had to feel cathartic as hell. Their largest win in a game vs GS since 2006, they picked a great time to do it. To dominate a game like this despite not having Kevin Huerter or more importantly Malik Monk is about as good as it gets, and the beauty (and hell) of these 9/10 games is all you need to do is be better for 48 minutes. Sometimes weird shit happens, sometimes guys go off and once the crowd gets going it takes over like an avalanche. Tonight, I'd say that's what we saw with guys like Keegan Murray 

His outside shooting is what got things started early, and he never cooled off. For a guy that didn't have the greatest series last year, that had to feel awesome as well. Every time it felt like maybe the Warriors could make a run, he answered with a huge 3PM. It's safe to say Murray showed up in a big way in the biggest moment of his basketball life.

And how about what we saw from Keon Ellis? Another reason why these Play In games are true toss ups. All of a sudden you have Keon Ellis going 3-4 from deep and completely putting Steph Curry in hell, finishing with 3 steals and 3 blocks. A complete momentum changing player and performance at just the right time. 

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The Kings offense is explosive as hell, so it's not surprising they won a game in which they made 18 3s, and score close to 120 points. That's what they do. They score and they score quickly.

Winning the game and getting your revenge for last year is nice, but this win has the potential to be so much more for the Warriors. It could very well be the end of the Warriors Dynasty. Finally. If you figure this is the last time Klay suits up in GS

that could be the start of many changes for a group that had one hell of a run these last 9 years

Perhaps we should have known this was coming, as the Warriors became the latest team unable to get over the Chris Paul curse. I didn't think that thing had Dynasty ending power, but here we are. The Warriors as we've known them probably won't exist after tonight, and while their run should certainly be appreciated given how dominant it was and what it did for the game of basketball, you know the rest of the West is somewhat relieved that Steph Curry is finally gone. There's nothing worse than seeing that guy shimmy all over you as he crushes your playoff dreams. It's the worst.

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While a night like this is fun, there's obviously still more work to do for the Kings. Beating the Warriors is great, but it doesn't get you into the playoffs. Now they have to head on the road and into New Orleans, who are going to be playing desperate as hell. From the sounds of it, I can't imagine Zion plays

so the door is open for the Kings to ride this momentum into a first round series against the Thunder. They split with OKC 2-2 on the season if you were curious, and as we're seeing so far to start the 2024 Playoffs, anything seems to be possible.