‘We have something to prove’: Kings fans celebrate playoff spot despite home finale loss

A cloudy haze covered Golden 1 Center as fans gathered outside and around the arena ahead of the Kings-Warriors game on Friday night.

Sun beams – and beams mean a lot to the Kings – occasionally shone through. A beam coming from the arena after the game was not to be, though, as the Kings lost their final regular season home game, 119-97.

“It’s fine” said one fan leaving the game.

Fine, it is. The Sacramento Kings have, for the first time in 17 years, finished their regular season home games knowing that Golden 1 Center won’t go dark – they will be back sooner than next season. After Sunday’s regular season game in Denver, the Kings will wait for the doors to open again to welcome fans here to the first round of the playoffs.

Finishing third in the Western Conference has assured them home-court advantage, opening with two games in Sacramento. They have a second season, a second wind, a new chance to allow fans to look for beams.

They did not get to do that Friday night. Still, the fans’ journey through the evening was fraught with promise and excitement.

The Warriors are still fighting

This was the last regular season home game, and the Kings have clinched their playoff spot, but it still had meaning. The Kings were to play the sixth-ranked Warriors, and if they maintain those positions heading into the playoffs, the two will likely face off in the first round. Games with meaning this late in the season have not been common for Kings fans.

JT Lund, 19, is a Sacramento native and said he was comfortable with where the Kings stand for the playoffs.

“There’s a lot at stake for the Warriors,” said Lund, near the arena.

Lund was about to attend the game with his friend Logan Reilly, 19, a Warriors fan he met through the water polo team at American River College.

The Warriors won the NBA championship last year and a win tonight would move them up to fifth in the West, meaning the Kings would not go against defending champs in the first round of the playoffs. Instead, the Los Angeles Clippers would likely move down a slot.

“There’s a lot of rousing that goes on,” Lund said. “It’s very playful. It feels really nice to be ranked above the Warriors for once, so you like to have that opportunity to get back at them a little bit for those years of torture.”

‘We have something to prove’

Ryan Murray, 18, is a Warriors fan from Long Island, N.Y. For his high school graduation present, his parents flew him to Chase Center in San Francisco for the game against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and he then flew to Sacramento on Friday for the game against the Kings.

He and his parents plan to fly to Portland on a 6 a.m. flight on Saturday for the Warriors’ game against the Trail Blazers.

“This team got me into basketball,” Murray said. “I was watching a game, I think it was 2014, but I saw the Warriors playing on ESPN against the Sacramento Kings, and I liked the way Andre Iguodala shot. The swish, it would wrap around the back of the net.”

Other fans outside the Golden 1 Center felt energy around the Kings before Friday’s game and for the upcoming playoffs. They hoped for a win and chance to chant “light the beam,” the purple beacon that illuminates the Sacramento sky after a Kings win. But without Kings starters De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis and Kevin Huerter, the chances for a light-the-beam moment diminished.

Casanya Ursery, 47, came to Sacramento in 1998 and fell in love with the city and the team and is excited to see the team in the playoffs after so long.

“It’s always a good time, and it’s always a big time for the Kings whenever the Warriors come to town anyway,” Ursery said. “We have something to prove.”

Lakers, maybe?

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, wearing a sport jacket over a Kings jersey, also absorbed the Kings atmosphere in Downtown Commons before the game Friday night.

“I think this could be a preview for next week,” Steinberg said. “I’m happy for the Kings, but I’m even happier for the city. I’ve been to a number of games this season, and I always say I’m happiest before and after the game when I see all the people in the city.”

The scenarios for playoffs were still in flux as of Friday. The Los Angeles Lakers, for example, have an 89% chance of making the playoffs and a 3% chance of winning the NBA Finals, according to FiveThirtyEight, a poll analysis website

Steinberg said there’s a chance the Lakers and the Kings would face off in the playoffs. That, he said, would “bring back some memories.”

The view from the Yard

The bustle at the Yard House in the Downtown Commons during the Kings-Warriors game on Friday was a loud one.

It was not packed, meaning you could get a table without waiting, but a significant crowd erupted when the team did well.

The Golden State Warriors, that is. And those fans did go home happy.

Prior to tipoff, somebody was prescient in the heart of the Kings world, repeatedly yelling a long, drawn out “Warriors” every minute in the restaurant, with no cries of protest. Northern California, after all is home to both teams.

A tale of two California cities

Heading into the game, the Warriors season record was 42-38 while the Kings had a better win-loss record of 48-32. The Warriors’ away game record was a harrowing 9-30, while the Kings’ home game record was a fairly even 23-17.

The Warriors scored first.

By the end of the first quarter they were up 16 points.

As the Kings inched toward the Warriors on the scoreboard, scattered shouts of praise from opposite ends of the restaurant could be heard, but it was not nearly as loud as the support for the Bay Area team. They do have the rings, of course. The Kings have had the frustration.

The shorthanded Kings began to make a comeback six minutes into the second quarter and reached as close as one point, 36-35, but a Warriors three-pointer pulled them ahead once again, for a lead they didn’t look likely to lose. And they didn’t, eventually making Joe Norlin happy.

Norlin, 70, of Elk Grove is originally from the Bay Area. Moments before he was seated at Yard House, he and his grandson from Carmichael, Christian, watched the game from the window outside. His other grandson, “a die-hard Kings fan,” had a seat inside Golden 1 Center.

Both sides of the ball

It was a house divided as Norlin had on a yellow Warriors shirt and hat. Christian sported a No. 13 Keegan Murray jersey and Kings hat.

Norlin has lived in Elk Grove for about five years and said he has been a Warriors fan since the early 1960s, when they were the San Francisco Warriors. He said he was raised as a Warriors fan by his father.

Norlin said he often watches the game from home, but on occasion he will go out to a bar or a pizza place.

At halftime, the Kings suffered a five-point deficit. They couldn’t close that gap.

Fox, Sabonis and Huerter cheered from the sidelines. Another night fans might have seen them at the game’s start. Not tonight. And the Warriors eventually extended the lead to double digits.

Eyes of fans at the Yard House bar stayed glued to the TV.

“We wanted to come to get the experience,” Warriors fan Norlin said.

No beam, but see the light

Ana Contreras said her child due later this month would be a Kings fan.

Contreras, 35, of Sonoma County, said she became a Kings fan in 2005 “when they were actually doing amazing” but suffered “nothing but disappointment” from then until now.

She attended Friday night’s game with her Warriors fan husband Edwin Chavez, 35, and was disappointed by the loss, a rather meaningless one considering the team has locked its playoff spot.

The Warriors were up roughly 20 points toward the game’s end, so the couple decided to leave early. They didn’t get to chant “light the beam,” the chances went to diminished to extinguished. Fans did not get to stand outside, wait for the beam moment and celebrate.

Still.

“I’m feeling great. I would have really loved to win this. I really would have,” she said outside of the arena. “It would have been great, but whatever. It’s fine.”

Kings and Warriors, maybe?

Contreras said that she hopes the Sacramento team’s record this year is the start of many good seasons to come because she feels like Kings fans have earned it.

Alisha Jones, 28, celebrated her birthday Friday night with a Warriors victory. Jones, although a Sacramento native, said she is a Warriors fan because she likes Stephen Curry.

She attended the game last-minute on an invitation from Dominique Alexander, 31, who was born and raised in San Francisco. He moved to Sacramento after his mother did the same.

He said Friday night outside Golden 1 Center that he has never thought about switching sides.

Jacob Fuentes, 18, also left the game early with his sister because starters De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis and Kevin Huerter were not playing, and they wanted to beat the rush to Insomnia Cookies in the Downtown Commons.

“I actually wanted them to lose tonight so we don’t have to (face) the Warriors in the playoffs,” Fuentes said. “The Warriors are obviously a four-time championship team. They just won the championship last year, so I would rather (face) the Clippers who we beat three times this year as opposed to the Warriors.”

He said the Kings having a winning season does not feel real. A sign outside of DoCo’s Identity Boutique, for example, points out that the last time the Kings made it to the playoffs: iPhones did not exist, Arnold Schwarzenegger was governor of California and gas was about $2.59 per gallon.

A new generation of fans

Jacob’s sister, Samantha Fuentes, 21, said she is content with the season because “we took a lot of dubs and we made it to the playoffs. “

A new generation of fans awaits. Samantha Fuentes would have been about 5 the last time the Kings went to the playoffs. Jacob Fuentes would have been roughly 2.

“We were fans since we were children,” she said. “Our grandpa John always kept the legacy going in our family with buying season tickets, and now, my dad’s carrying it on. We’ve been fans since day one, so we’re pretty excited to see them back in the playoffs.”

Contreras and Chavez have another generation on the way, but this is their last game for a bit before their child arrives.

“This is our last hurrah before we have a child that will be a Kings fan,” Kings fan Contreras said. “He (Chavez) does not have a choice.”

“I’ve learned not to argue,” Chavez said.