The James Logan Courier

By Kevin Armonio, staff writer

The Sacramento Kings beat the Golden State Warriors last night, holding on to the coveted Western Conference #8 seed, the bottom seed of the playoffs.
The Warriors, who desperately needed a win to keep their hopes of entering the postseason alive played, played like it against the Kings. The Kings seemed to a lot of the game, being up by as much as 13. Sacramento was led by SG Bonzi Wells, who had 22 points and PG Mike Bibby who had 21 points.

Golden State was led by SF Mike Dunleavy who had a team high 24 points, SG Jason Richardson who had 17 points, and SG Mickael Pietrus, who came off the bench and had 16 points. The Warriors played inconsistently having a 32 point first quarter then following it with a 12 point second quarter and 9 points were within one point, 92-91 after a Pietrus rebound putback, with a little more than 14 seconds on the clock.

Kings' C Brad Miller hit all of his free throws in the last 10 seconds of the game, and all but sealed the Warriors fate. With a little more than four seconds left, Golden State down by 3-points, put the game in Richardson's hands. As he got the ball Mike Bibby was able to jostle the ball a little forcing Richardson to take a wild 3-pointer as time expired.

This was the second straight game the Warriors lost after finding themselves in a last-second shot situation. The Kings now have a tighter hold on the #8 seed in the playoffs.