Resurgent Warriors seize lead

With the hostile crowd roaring and Sacramento making a big push, the Golden State Warriors did what they have done so often over their dynasty.

They silenced a crowd and came away with a backbreaking road win.

Stephen Curry scored 31 points, Draymond Green had his highest-scoring game in more than five years and the Warriors earned the first road win of their series against Sacramento, beating the Kings 123-116 Wednesday night to take a 3-2 lead.

The Warriors won a road game for an NBA-record 28th straight playoff series, encompassing the entire era of Curry, Green and Klay Thompson.

"The experience that they've had over the last decade playing in a lot of big games, it's definitely helpful," coach Steve Kerr said. "I thought they did a great job tonight of staying poised down the stretch when Sacramento made their run and really made some big plays in the last five minutes to seal it."

Green had 21 points and seven assists in his first game back in Sacramento since getting ejected and later suspended for stepping on Domantas Sabonis' chest in a Game 2 loss.

Golden State now can try to wrap up the series with a fourth straight win at home on Friday night.

"I think this team has really grown together," Green said. "Every year, that team has to grow together. This year took longer than we normally like. It's starting to go well for us."

The defending champion Warriors showed off their road mettle that had been missing so often this season. Golden State won only 11 games away from home in the regular season and lost the first two games in Sacramento before pulling this one out.

"This is a different team than what we had all year," Kerr said. "What happened in November and December and January on the road has nothing to do with right now. This is the team we're looking at, is a team that won a championship last year and won a ton of road playoff games. Our guys know how to do it and got it done tonight."

The Kings trailed by 12 early in the fourth quarter after a layup by Curry but wouldn't go away. They chipped away at the deficit behind 11 points in the next five minutes from Malik Monk — who went down briefly with what looked like a left-knee injury — to make it a one-point game with just over four minutes left.

But the Warriors pulled away late after Monk missed a potential game-tying 3 with 1:04 to play.

Andrew Wiggins made a turnaround jumper to make it a five-point game and Curry put it away with a three-point play with 22.1 seconds left that made it 122-114.

Thompson added 25 points, Wiggins had 20 and Kevon Looney matched his career high with 22 rebounds.

Agencies Via Xinhua