Kings beat Warriors 114-106 for 2-0 lead; Draymond Green ejected

SACRAMENTO,Calif. (AP) — De’Aaron Fox scored 24 points and made a backbreaking3-pointer that led the playoff newcomer Sacramento Kings to asecond straight victory over the defending champion Golden StateWarriors, 114-106 on Monday night.

The Kingsclosed the game strong after Golden State’s Draymond Green wasejected for a flagrant foul and became the first team to take a 2-0series lead over the Warriors in the Stephen Curry era.

The Warriorswill try to get back into the series when it shifts less than 90miles southwest to San Francisco for Game 3 on Thursday night.

The game gotheated in the fourth quarter when Green stomped on DomantasSabonis’ chest with 7:03 to play, leading to an ejection for aflagrant foul.

During thereview, the fans in Sacramento yelled derogatory chants towardGreen, who egged them on by waving his hands, holding a hand to hisear calling for louder cheers and standing on a chair.

The Warriorsfought back to tie the game before the Kings went on a 17-8 run torun away with it to the delight of the towel-waving crowd.

Fox’s3-pointer made it 107-101 with 2:17 to play and the Kings were incontrol from there. Davion Mitchell put it away with another 3 thatmade it 112-103 with 1:18 left.

Sabonis added24 points for Sacramento and Malik Monk scored 18 off thebench.

Curry led theWarriors with 28 points but made just 3 of 13 from 3-point range asGolden State struggled to get going offensively. The Warriorscommitted 22 turnovers.

The crowd insuccess-starved Sacramento didn’t quite hit the fever pitch of theopener when the fans celebrated the franchise’s first playoff gamefollowing a record drought of 16 seasons.

The fansstarted to get into it in the second quarter thanks to anotherspark off the bench from Monk, who scored 32 points in the opener.Monk hit three 3-pointers in the first 2:04 of the period to helpfuel a 23-8 run that turned a six-point deficit into a nine-pointlead.

Golden Statefought back and tied it on a 3 by Curry before allowing the finalsix points of the quarter to trail 58-52 at the half.

The Kingsbuilt the lead to 14 points in the third quarter before theWarriors scored eight in a row. Sacramento led 83-75 headed to thefourth.

SLOPPYSTART

The teams gotoff to a sloppy start with each committing nine turnovers in thefirst quarter. The 18 combined turnovers in the first quarter werethe most in any game in more than six seasons and the most in aplayoff game since at least the 2001-02 season.

The Kingsalso missed their first 11 3-pointers before Fox made one late inthe first.

TIP-INS

Warriors:Andrew Wiggins was back in the starting lineup in his second backfollowing an absence of more than two months to deal with anundisclosed family matter. Wiggins scored 22 points. ... GoldenState committed five fouls in the first 1:42 of the thirdquarter.

Kings:Sacramento’s 41 points in the second quarter marked the eighth timea team scored at least 40 in a quarter of a playoff game againstGolden State in coach Steve Kerr’s tenure.

UP NEXT

Game 3 isThursday night in San Francisco.