SACRAMENTO – Coach Steve Kerr kept seeing the references over and over.
Light the beam. What does that even mean?
Kerr had no idea, he said, until a week ago when he asked someone about it. They told him it was the battle cry for the Sacramento Kings, who turn on a royal purple laser after each victory that pierces the night sky. Locals can see the victory beam shooting from the roof of Golden 1 Center.
But while the Kings light the bar, the Warriors have been trying to flip the proverbial switch for months on a rocky title defense. And that brought us to Friday; a pivotal late-season game between the two Northern California NBA teams.
It has already secured a top three place in the Western Conference and rested some of its players; the other is still on shaky ground trying to get into the top six and avoid the play-in tournament.
Who would have thought seven months ago that the team that braced itself to make the playoffs would win the Larry O’Brien Trophy last summer?
The Kings broke a league record in 16 years postseason more than a week ago, after surpassing expectations in their first year at the helm of former Warriors head coach Mike Brown.
Brown came to Sacramento after winning his third title with Golden State last June, excited to take on the challenge of establishing a new culture for the Kings, who have received much of the spotlight in the NBA over the past two decades. have spent.
Brown performed and finally gave the fans something to cheer after losing 16 years of basketball.
“Mike did a fantastic job,” Kerr said ahead of Friday’s game. “He is without a doubt Coach of the Year this year. To take the team from where they were at the beginning of the season to where they are today…just the energy and excitement around the team, the buzz in town, the way they’ve played, the style they’ve played in, Mike crushed it.
Kerr is thrilled for both Mike and Harrison Barnes, who the Warriors finished seventh overall in 2001, and Leandro Barbosa, former Warriors player and development coach who joined Brown’s staff during the offseason.
“We have a lot of connections with that locker room over there,” said Kerr. “We are happy for them.”
But the Warriors now had their own affairs to take care of as well. They didn’t have to worry about De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis and Kevin Huerter sitting Brown for Friday’s game.
The Warriors started Friday with a shot at clinching a playoff spot with a win, a Pelicans loss to the Knicks and a Lakers loss to the Suns. But the Pelicans beat the Knicks to dash those hopes quickly.
“Right now we just want to get in, we’re not worried about anything else,” Kerr said.
