Kings-Warriors playoffs: Brown rides Harleys to unwind, Fox grit, playoff pressure cooker

Mike Brown has a go-to move to unwind, to clear his mind of myriad NBA playoff scenarios, to not let leading the Sacramento Kings completely consume and engulf him.

The first-year coach will ease onto one of his two trusty Harley-Davidson motorcycles and tool up and down Highway 50 in between games to let loose, free as the wind.

“I jumped on my bike and had a nice ride, maybe two days ago,” Brown said before Wednesday’s Game 5 showdown with the Golden State Warriors at Golden 1 Center. “I think I even rode it into our coach’s meeting. It gives me something to think about other than this.”

Brown was quick to remind that his wife, Rochelle, encourages his Harley rides but that he values her a great deal more than his two-wheeler. Before Game 1, Brown said he wanted to keep things as normal as possible, to the point of making sure he got a car wash on his way to Golden 1.

Before the tip, Brown was presented with the NBA Coach of the Year award. The Warriors won 123-116.

Fox ‘a gamer’

Warriors coach Steve Kerr said before the game that he fully expected Kings All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox to Game 5 with his fractured finger on his left shooting hand. Fox has been Sacramento’s best player in this series, averaging 31 points.

“I’m not surprised he’s playing,” Kerr said. “He’s a gamer. It’s tough to keep these guys out of a playoff game. This is what they trained for. They’ve dreamt of it, and our players would have been the same way.

Brown on Fox

Brown has applauded Fox throughout this season, and he’s challenged the man he calls “Foxy” in person and through the media to be even better.

“He’s been our guy,” Brown said. “He’s done a fantastic job. I told him, ‘I mean, you’ve done a lot for us, but I’m going to keep asking for more because that’s what you’re getting paid for and there’s nothing that I’m not going to (keep challenging you with).”

Fox started fast, making five of his first six shots, and he had a game-high 17 at the half. He finished with 24.

Pressure cooker

The longer a playoff series lasts, the tighter the pressure cooker becomes, coaches and players say, and perhaps more so for teams like the Kings that are new to this. The franchise last made the postseason in 2006 before this breakthrough.

“The further along you go, (the pressure) heightens because, trust me, if you make it to the Western Conference Finals, if you think there’s a lot of eyes on you now, it’s going to multiply 20 times more,” Brown said. “The media mass is going to really increase and everybody’s going to be analyzing every part of your game and what you’re doing off the floor and all that other stuff.

“So, as you go along in a playoff series, especially if it’s one that’s competitive, the deeper you get, the more heightened it’s going to be, and it’s easy to sit here and talk about it, which I will and have with our guys. But they just need to go through it and not only go through it but sometimes experience the bounce back. That impacts you in a way that makes you want to work harder.”

Grit and grind

Brown said pregame that the efforts by his leading two players — Fox and All-Star center Domantas Sabonis — to grit through hand injuries that are tender to the touch speaks of their leadership.

“It sends a big message,” he said. “You want your guys to have not just a physical toughness but a mental toughness, and it’s great if it starts from your leaders and trickles down. (They say), ‘Tape it up. I’m gonna continue to go.’ You need that because at this time of year, maybe not to that extent, but everybody’s banged up.”

Fox seemed comfortable most of the game with his finger but did in the fourth quarter grimaced after Steph Curry had a poke steal.

Injuries of Kings playoffs past

Fox isn’t the first key Kings contributor to suffer an injury in the playoffs, just the latest. The Kings have been undone or crippled by injuries before, though it’s been a long while (and injuries are part of any playoff series, so no excuses and no pity, right?).

▪ In 2003, Kings All-Star forward Chris Webber went down with a blown knee in Dallas, some two hours after he iced both knees before the game in explaining his concern that he feared it may buckle. The Kings lost to the Mavericks in seven games in the second round.

▪ In 2004, Kings energizer guard Bobby Jackson - now a Kings assistant coach - missed the entire postseason with an abdominal injury that greatly limited his mobility. The Kings missed him as they lost in seven games to Minnesota in the semifinals. Jackson missed six weeks the previous season of the regular season with three broken bones in his left hand after Shaquille O’Neal of the Lakers nearly pulverized his mitt by swiping at it on a drive down the lane.

▪ Kings All-Star shooter Peja Stojakovic labored through a bad ankle in the 2002 Western Conference finals against the Lakers, and his shot was off throughout that series, a seven-game setback.

Not Green with envy

The fan sign of the night, among many, was the fellow in the Harrison Barnes jersey No. 4 who held a note that read, “Draymond NOT invited to my wedding either.”

That was a dig to Draymond Green, the Warriors burly and sometimes surly forward who was ejected in Game 2 for his stomp on Sabonis and was soundly booed throughout Game 5 at Golden 1.

The dig was in reference to Green taking issue with Barnes not inviting him to his wedding a few years ago, to which Green said on his podcast, “The Draymond Green Show”: “This dude invites Steph, Klay, everybody to his wedding except me.”