NBA Playoffs: Golden State and Sacramento battle it out, Minnesota beats Denver
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In a thrilling night of NBA playoff action, the first round continued with Golden State and Sacramento achieving important victories, while Boston and New York moved closer to the second round.
Golden State bounces back
Down 2-0 in their series against Sacramento, Golden State fought back in a nail-biting game, tying the series at 2-2.
The current champions won with a score of 126-125, and despite a valiant effort from the Kings, Harrison Barnes missed the last shot of the game. “These games are coming down to the wire, and you’ve just got to really finish possessions and try to give yourself the best chance, and then sometimes, it’s just, does the ball go in or not,” said Golden State coach, Kerr.
Steph Curry led the Warriors to victory with 32 points, Klay Thompson added 26, and Jordan Poole added 22. On the other side, the Kings’ best player was De'Aaron Fox with 38 points. “This is where our playoff inexperience comes into play because you can’t rest out there, or you can’t think that you can play something a certain way and the champions are not going to make you pay the price,” said Sacramento coach, Mike Brown.
Minnesota triumphs
In another exciting game, Minnesota celebrated a win against Denver with a score of 114-108. Anthony Edwards played an outstanding game, scoring 34 points to ensure that Denver did not sweep the series despite the impressive game of Nikola Jokic, who scored 43 points with 11 rebounds and 6 assists.
“I take pride. I didn’t want to say I got swept,” said Edwards. “I don’t ever want to say I got swept in my career. So, I definitely took it personally tonight”. “We had an opportunity to close a series,” said Jokic. “We just didn’t.
They were fighting. They were desperate. But it is what it is”. Rudy Gobert added 14 points and 15 rebounds for Minnesota, and Karl-Anthony Towns added, “It’s great that we got it tonight, and we've got to do it three more times”.
Boston and New York dominate
In other playoff action, Boston defeated Atlanta 129-121, and New York beat Cleveland 102-93, putting them both within reach of the second round. Boston's Jaylen Brown spoke about the significance of playing in Atlanta, “It's bittersweet, man, growing up here.
My first game was a Hawks game. I was sitting in the nosebleeds. My aunt, who was in attendance tonight, bought me tickets to my first game for my seventh birthday”. As the first round of the NBA playoffs continues, fans around the world will be eagerly anticipating the next set of games.