‘Not scared of anybody’: Kings won’t fear Warriors in playoffs despite shorthanded loss

The Kings didn’t have the firepower for a shootout with the Golden State Warriors this time, but they won’t be intimated if they see them again in the playoffs.

The Warriors needed a win in the worst way and they got one courtesy of a Kings team that rested five players with nothing to gain in Friday’s home finale.

Klay Thompson scored 29 points to lead the Warriors to a 119-97 victory over the shorthanded Kings in a potential first-round playoff preview before a record-setting sellout crowd of 18,253 at Golden 1 Center.

The Warriors took a big step toward securing an automatic playoff berth while the Kings sat three starters and two key reserves in preparation for their first postseason appearance since 2006. The Warriors can clinch no less than the No. 6 seed with a win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday.

There is a good chance the Kings and Warriors will meet again in the opening round of the playoffs. The Kings have a healthy respect for a Golden State squad that has won four NBA championships over the past nine years, but they believe they can compete with anyone.

“They’re the defending champs,” Kings forward Chimezie Metu said. “It’s going to be tough to go in there toe-to-toe, but we’re going to go in there and we’re going to attack it head on. We’re not scared of them. We’re not scared of anybody. … We feel like when we’re at full health, we can go in there and beat them, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

Stephen Curry had 25 points, seven rebounds and six assists for the Warriors (43-38), who have won seven of nine. Donte DiVincenzo added 18 points and Kevon Looney grabbed 18 rebounds.

Trey Lyles came off the bench to score 15 points for the Kings (48-33). Harrison Barnes and Metu scored 13 points apiece.

“They’re running like a well-oiled machine, and obviously a lot of the guys we played tonight hadn’t played in some games, so the rhythm wasn’t really there and it just made it a lot tougher,” Metu said. “But I felt for a good portion of the game, we went out there and played hard.”

The Warriors, who are still trying to clinch a playoff spot to avoid the play-in tournament, needed a win much more than the Kings. They played all of their best players with the exception of Andrew Wiggins, who is ramping up his conditioning after missing the past 24 games due to personal reasons.

The Kings, who are locked in as the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference following the Memphis Grizzlies’ win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday, chose to sit De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Kevin Hueter and Malik Monk, four of the seven players who were listed as questionable going into the game.

“Sitting those guys is my decision,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “Those guys went through shootaround today to see if it worked out, and I decided to sit them after shootaround, so it’s strictly on me.”

The Kings will play the No. 6 seed in the first round of the playoffs, which are set to begin April 15. The Warriors moved back in front of the Los Angeles Clippers for the No. 5 seed with Friday’s win, but that could change.

The Clippers will play the Portland Trail Blazers on Saturday and the Phoenix Suns on Sunday. The Warriors will play their final game against the Blazers on Sunday. The Suns have shut down their starters because they have clinched the No. 4 seed. The Blazers have shut theirs down because they’ve been eliminated from playoff contention.

If the Clippers win their last two games and the Warriors win their last one, they will finish with identical records. The Clippers hold the tiebreaker by virtue of their division record. That would give the Clippers the No. 5 seed. The Warriors would be No. 6.

“In terms of who to play in the first round, at the end of the day, if you expect to win a championship, you’ve just got to beat who’s in front of you,” Brown said. “… Whoever’s in front of us, if we expect to get to where we expect to get to, it’s going to be a dog fight, so it doesn’t matter.”

Before the game, Brown was asked if there could be some benefit to seeing the Warriors so close to the playoffs in the event that they face each other in the first round.

“You always get a little smarter, I think, when you play (a team),” Brown said. “I don’t think (Wiggins) is playing tonight, but he’s basically a starter that will probably be ready for them in the playoffs, too, so you’ll gain a little bit of knowledge, but I’ve been a part of teams where you go 1-3 in the regular season against them — winning one and losing three — or sometimes getting swept, but you beat them in a playoff series.

“You try to learn from your regular-season games, but you don’t take too much stock in it because, at the end of the day, trying to win four out of seven games is a completely different experience than beating a team in the regular season. From preparation to you name it, it’s a lot different, so you gain a little bit of knowledge and so will they, but not a ton.”

The Warriors shot 52.6% from the field and 44.4% from 3-point range, but they committed 24 turnovers. That allowed the Kings to keep the game close in the first half, but they were outscored 66-49 in the second half.

“Carelessness was the main cause,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of his team’s turnovers. “I thought Sacramento played hard and they got into the ball and they forced a couple, but you saw some of the careless passing that we’re not going to be able to get away with in the playoffs. So, we’ve got to win one more game, obviously, to get in, but assuming we get in, we’re going to have to play a lot better than we did tonight.”