Experience of champions? "The most clutch player in the NBA" gave a lesson to the stars of Golden State - voila! sport

Andrew Wiggins is training for his return to the Golden State roster in the playoffs (from YouTube)

On the eve of the opening of the series between Sacramento and Golden State, the premise was one: in tight and tense games, the experience and seniority of the Warriors will make the difference against the young Kings.

But tonight (between Saturday and Sunday), in game 1 of the first round in the playoffs, it was precisely the immature and inexperienced players of the Kings who excelled in the moments of truth against the veteran fighting foxes who stood on the other side.

It ended 123:126 for Sacramento, which celebrated its first playoff victory in 17 years, and showed that the early assessments about it were not necessarily correct.

It happened first of all thanks to Dearon Fox, the star of the Kings and who was the king of the clutch baskets of the regular season.

In his first career playoff game, Fox proved that his regular season numbers were no fluke, and that he was indeed destined for the big moments on the big stage.

He finished with 38 points - the second most ever for a player in a playoff debut (Luka Doncic holds the record), and scored no less than 29 points in the second half, after a tepid first half of 9 points.

Fox did miss a free throw that could have been decisive in the last minute of the game, but proved for many minutes that he has the composure required for the playoffs, which is reserved for the really big stars.

And all while he had to accept the difficult defensive task of guarding Steph Curry for long minutes.

"Diaron is made for this. He loves the big moments," praised Kings coach Mike Brown.

"He accepted with love the role I gave him in this game, and in this series. He understands that in order to win the championship one day, he has to be an excellent player on both sides of the field. He has to do both defense and offense at a very high level. Today he took it with both hands" .

Fox's top partner for the Kings' impressive play was Malik Monk, who scored 32 points off the bench including 14 of 14 from the free throw line.

Monk, who was also making his playoff debut, also showed composure and toughness with very important points in money time.

"That's why I came to Sacramento - I wanted to change the culture of this team along with my good friend," he said of Fox, his friend from Kentucky College.

"These fans have been waiting for this for 16 years. Today was crazy how much we heard them, and how much they supported us."

The regular season numbers were no fluke.

Fox celebrates with the owners of the Kings, Vivek Ranadiva (Photo: GettyImages, Loren Elliott)

The two college friends "came to change the culture" of the Kings.

Tonight it worked.

Fox and Monk (Photo: Reuters)

On the other side, Golden State broadcast optimism at the end, and made it clear that it is not necessarily worried after the first game of the series.

"I liked the way we played. If we can play like that again, execute the game plan at that level, I think we'll be in a good place. I know we're capable of scoring higher percentages in the clutch, and I'm sure that will happen - and that's mainly what we'll have to do better to To win here," said Steph Curry who scored 30 points.

According to Kerry, "This game was a good lesson for us. We realized that in an away game in the playoffs, especially against an attacking team like Sacramento, every momentum change is important. We realized that we need to record our best away game to win here."

In the United States there was someone who criticized Steve Kerr, who gave Kerr only 37 minutes in the game, and helped Sacramento come back from minus 8 in a moment of crisis, when he disqualified Steph deep in the third quarter.

In general, the Warriors' dependence on Curry was very noticeable in this game: in the minutes he was on the court, Golden State won by 10 points (the most of either team's players), while in his minutes on the bench they were defeated by 17.

"Minutes without Kerry looked like a disaster, and Steve Kerr will have to find the solution," wrote NBC, and even when Kerry was asked about it, he had trouble expressing enthusiasm, or justifying the careful use Kerr made of him.

"I don't know...I played 37 minutes, that means I sat on the bench for 11 minutes...I tried to get some air during that time, because I understand I won't play 48 minutes, but...yeah, I don't know what to say about that Kerry said hesitantly.

a little when minutes?

Kerry (Photo: GettyImages, Loren Elliott)

Golden State is just waiting for Sacramento to continue with the same defensive method.

Kerry next to Steve Kerr (Photo: GettyImages, Loren Elliott)

Kerry has already encountered countless types of defenses during his career, but apparently he has encountered relatively little of the defense that Sacramento kept on him for episodes tonight - a box-and-one defense that has almost disappeared from the world.

According to Kerry, this defense will not work against him for long.

"We reacted to it quite well, we made good moves, we got excellent shots, even if they weren't mine. You have to play patiently in situations like this, without rushing, slowly find the free player because there must be one like that against such a defense. We have to adjust ourselves. While I expected that defense, I still have to look for my shot aggressively," Kerry analyzed.

Klay Thompson also hopes that the Kings will continue with the same defensive tactics in the next games, and according to him, the Warriors can only benefit from this.

"I welcome it. Steph will just have to find the free player, and he and we know that in this game we will hit our shots at a higher percentage," said Thompson who scored 21 points.

"The free looks I received today I will turn into shots with much higher percentages in the next game."

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• Golden State Warriors

• Sacramento Kings