Heart attack night for the Golden State Warriors in the fourth matchup of the playoffs against the Sacramento Kings. Those from San Francisco managed to tie the series (2-2) after an agonizing end, in a match where they won by the minimum (126-125). Stephen Curry scored 32 points, but called a timeout when Golden State couldn’t, putting his team on the ropes. Harrison Barnes had his hands on the game-winning 3-pointer for the Kings at the buzzer but missed.
For the Warriors, Klay Thompson with 26 points and Jordan Poole with 22 accompanied Curry, while De’Aaron Fox (38 points) and rookie Keegan Murray (23 points) stood out for the Kings. The match marked the return of Draymond Green after his suspension. Golden State’s inside started off the bench.
In an even game where the emotion was maintained until the end, the Warriors faced the last minute with a five-point advantage. However, Fox hit a 3-pointer to make it 126-125 with 29 seconds to go after Curry called a timeout when his team didn’t have one. This error led to a technical foul and possession against the San Francisco team. After that action, the Golden State leader missed a shot with 10 seconds left, and gave the Kings an opportunity to win the game, but the Sacramento team failed to take advantage of it. The fifth game of the series will be played next Wednesday, April 26 in California.
At Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks left the Cleveland Cavaliers on the verge of elimination (3-1 in the series) after achieving a 102-93 victory. In the Knicks, who were superior to the Cavaliers especially in rebounding (59 vs. 42), Jalen Brunson stood out with 29 points, six rebounds, six assists and RJ Barrett with 26 points.
For the Cavaliers, Darius Garland was the top scorer with 23 points and 10 rebounds while Donovan Mitchell had a poor performance with 11 points, 5 of 18 shooting from the field and six turnovers. Spaniard Ricky Rubio had two rebounds and two assists in six minutes as the Cavaliers host the Knicks in Cleveland on Wednesday in a decisive Game 5.
In Atlanta Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, with 28 points between the two in the last quarter, were in charge of leading the victory of the Boston Celtics (121-129) against some Hawks who are forced to win three straight games to continue in the playoffs (1-3).
Tatum had 16 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter and Brown had 12 of his 31 points in the final 12 minutes. In addition, the Celtics had four other players in double-digit scoring: Derrick White (18 points), Marcus Smart (19 points), Malcolm Brogdon (14 points) and Robert Williams III (13 points and 15 rebounds).
In the Celtics Al Horford contributed 11 rebounds and five assists, the first time since 1966 that a player achieved such a statistic in the playoffs without scoring a single point. For the Hawks, Trae Young (35 points and 15 assists) led the Atlanta game, where De’Andre Hunter (27 points and seven rebounds) and Dejounte Murray (23 points, nine rebounds and six assists) also stood out. .
The Minnesota Timberwolves, for their part, who lost the first three games of their series against the Denver Nuggets, achieved a long-suffering victory in overtime (114-108) to keep alive the dream of a historic comeback, since no team has managed to give it return to a 3-0 loss in the playoffs.
Edwards was the best of the locals with 34 points and six rebounds, and four other Wolves players had more than 10 points: Mike Conley (19 points and eight assists), the Dominican Karl-Anthony Towns (17 points and 11 rebounds), Kyle Anderson (11 points and six rebounds) and Rudy Gobert (14 points and 15 rebounds). For the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic had a brilliant performance with 43 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. The series now returns to Denver, where Game 5 will be played on Tuesday.
