‘Special day’: Kings and Warriors prepare to tip off Game 1 of Battle of Northern California

The Battle of Northern California will commence with thunderous applause Saturday when the Kings play host to the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of their best-of-seven series at Golden 1 Center.

Sacramento has waited 17 years to bring decibel levels back to where they were when the team was winning. A sellout crowd of more than 18,000 people will pack the city’s dazzling downtown arena with thousands more crowding the DoCo corridor to see the Kings light the beam on a historic day for the franchise.

“It’s going to be jumping,” Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox said. “I think Kings fans have been ready for this and I think the basketball world has been ready to see Sacramento back in the playoffs, so I think this is going to be a great day.”

Kings center Domantas Sabonis said he was eager to see Sacramento’s response to the team’s first playoff game since 2006.

“I’m excited,” Sabonis said. “I don’t even know what to expect, but I know it’s going to be special.”

Kings guard Malik Monk had this to say about Sacramento fans: “They’re crazy. I love it, though. They’re crazy and they’re here for us.”

The skirmishes in this regional battle have already begun with fighting among fans on social media and mostly friendly fire between Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Area radio hosts. First-year Kings coach Mike Brown joined the fray Friday when told how much the Warriors were complimenting him after he helped them win three championships in six seasons as Steve Kerr’s lead assistant.

“It’s a setup,” Brown quipped. “They want to kick my ass. Trust me. I’ve been around them enough. It’s a setup. Don’t fall for it and I’m not falling for it neither. Screw you guys until this is over.”

And so it begins, an epic battle between two teams that have never clashed in the playoffs because they’ve never been good at the same time.

The Kings reached the Western Conference finals and made eight consecutive postseason appearances under former coach Rick Adelman before plunging into the darkness of a 16-year playoff drought. The Warriors endured a 12-year playoff drought with one postseason appearance in 17 years before Stephen Curry led them to the first of seven consecutive playoff appearances in 2013.

When the Kings were good, the Warriors were bad. When the Kings were bad, the Warriors were phenomenal, winning four championships in a span of eight years.

“From a fan perspective, it’s great that everything’s local,” said Kings forward Harrison Barnes, who won a championship with the Warriors in 2015. “It’s great for Northern California to have this moment.”

The team that wins Game 1 in a first-round NBA playoff series has gone on to win the series 79.7% of the time. Both teams understand the significance of a strong start.

“You’ve got to come out and show that you’re here and it’s not going to be easy,” Sabonis said. “We can’t give them any confidence, just like they’re probably thinking the same thing.”

The Kings were favored to win Game 1 as of Friday night, but they are huge underdogs in the series. They insist they will not be intimidated despite Golden State’s championship pedigree and stable of future Hall of Famers.

Asked to describe the team’s mood, Brown said: “Confident.”

“Guys have a belief in their approach and there’s also an appropriate fear,” Brown said. “Anything that you do, you’ve got to have an appropriate fear for whatever you’re stepping into, especially for the first time, but that doesn’t take away from the confidence and belief we have in each other because we’ve had it all year.”

The Kings have already exceeded expectations this season. The stakes are higher for the Warriors given the uncertain futures of general manager Boy Myers and forward Draymond Green.

“We understand the implications,” Curry told Bay Area media. “I think Draymond said the other day, we’re measured by how we play in the playoffs, just the fact that we got through 82 and the six seed and all that. It was an emotional roller coaster all year, but the implications on how our season finishes, we understand, kind of dictates a lot of the conversation around us, and it always has.

“We’ve just had tremendous success, so we’ve let our play speak for what should happen around here, so that’s the same way you approach this season and this playoff run. Because this business is what it is, and it’s a lot that’s thrown at you emotionally of what could be or what might happen or whatever the hypotheticals, but when we win, everybody gets rewarded, and that’s what our goal is, so we’re trying to make that happen.”

Brown suggested the Warriors are the team with more to lose.

“Yes, we are the three seed and they’re the six,” Brown said. “At the end of the day, they’re probably feeling a little bit more pressure than we are because they are the champions. Everybody expects them to be back in the finals. Nobody even picked us to finish in a playoff spot, which is fine.

“We can’t change people’s minds by telling them, ‘Hey, we’re better than that.’ We’ve got to go out and change people’s minds by our play and the results of our play. We’re going to go out and play. We’re going to try to play loose and free. Fast, loose and disciplined is actually one thing Steve used to say that I say with our group now. We’re going to try to play that way and see what happens.”

Whatever happens, the Kings have already given Sacramento something the city hasn’t had in many years.

“The excitement here is unbelievable,” Brown said. “It’s off the charts. To me, that’s what makes this whole thing special, just to be out in the community and see how excited and elated people are about this playoff run.

“I was out at Fat’s Bistro out in Folsom. A buddy of mine, Frank, is retiring, so I went to his retirement party and the staff at Fat’s Bistro, they were fantastic. The staff ranked from older people like myself to young people who are just out of high school or college, first job of whatever. So, to hear their excitement and the stories from the older people saying, ‘Yeah, back in the day, I used to go to Arco and it was this and that.’ And the young people are like, ‘I’ve never seen us in the playoffs. This is great.’ So, to see those types of reactions from different types of generations was a lot of fun. … Hopefully we can keep this excitement going for a long time during this playoff run.”