Kings-Warriors playoff preview: Sacramento preparing for experience gap vs. Golden State

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry has played 4,997 minutes in the playoffs over his career. Teammates Klay Thompson and Draymond Green: 5,362 and 5,080, respectively.

The 10 players on the Kings with postseason experience have combined for 4,282.

Discrepancies like that will happen when one team has appeared in six of the last eight NBA Finals while the other is making its first playoff appearance in 17 years.

The Kings will play Game 1 in their best-of-seven series against the Warriors on Saturday at Golden 1 Center. Sacramento’s relative inexperience compared to the defending champions is among the reasons Golden State is the first No. 6 seed to be this heavily favored against a No. 3 seed in memory. The Warriors this week have been betting favorites as high as minus-300, while no top-three seed has been as big of an underdog as the Kings since 1990, according to the Action Network.

A talking point leading up to Game 1 has been how the Kings are trying to prepare for the bright lights of the playoffs despite their group having no experience together.

“I don’t think there’s any other way but to go through it,” Kings coach Mike Brown said. “You prepare your team as best you can, and you talk to them about the experiences that you’ve had as a coach or as a player. And you lace them up and you go out there and you get through it.

“As we all know, there’s no better teacher than experience. You can talk until you’re blue in the face. You could watch film until you’re blue in the face. You can drill it until you’re blue in the face. It’s hard to simulate what it’s really going to be like until you go through it.”

Brown is one of the Kings’ most experienced voices when it comes to the postseason.

He reached six straight playoffs as a head coach previously, appearing in 83 postseason games from 2006 to 2012 while coaching LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers for five years and Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers for one. He was also an assistant for the Warriors for six seasons, including when he filled in for Steve Kerr as head coach for 11 games during the 2017 playoffs while Kerr was dealing with complications from back surgery.

Brown during a team dinner earlier in the week tapped other voices with a playoff track record to talk about what to expect. One was veteran guard Matthew Dellavedova, who played against Curry and the Warriors in the Finals twice as a member of the Cavaliers in 2015 and 2016, when Cleveland came back from a 3-1 deficit to win the title in seven games.

Dellavedova, 32, was signed last offseason mostly for his veteran leadership after spending 2021-22 out of the NBA with Melbourne United of the Australian National Basketball League.

Dellavedova isn’t expected to play in this series after suffering a finger injury late in the regular season. Players and coaches have said his impact on the team has been invaluable despite his limited role on the court.

“His voice has been great,” Kings guard Malik Monk said. “Because he’s been through everything we’re going through, even more. He just knows a lot and he just gives us great pointers, great ideas, things to do and things not do.”

Another example: Dellavedova had a conversation with reserve Terence Davis on a flight during a road trip last month, which helped Davis bust out of a slump and score 21 points in a victory over the Washington Wizards.

“His presence has been remarkable for us, because we’re extremely young and inexperienced when it comes to the playoffs and beyond,” Brown said. “So to have him around, with all the experiences that he’s gone through. ... He’s played and won at a high level on the international scene, too. So, he’s not only helped our players, but he’s come to us (coaches) and helped us. He even came to myself and Jordi (Fernandez) and gave us ideas that they did in 2015 against the Warriors and helped with their preparation. He plays so hard. He’s always prepared. Guys respect him because of that, but his mind is off the charts.”

Others with playoff experience who spoke at the team dinner earlier in the week: Harrison Barnes and assistant coach Leandro Barbosa, who were teammates on the Warriors when they won their championship in 2015. Barnes has played 2,041 playoff minutes, more than double any of his teammates. Dellavedova is second on the team at 975.

Barnes was asked to elaborate on his message to his teammates at that team dinner.

“Just embrace it,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to be here. We’ve worked extremely hard. Every year is different — you never know when you’ll be back here. So, definitely, just embrace this moment. Understand that it took a lot for us to be here and we deserve to be in this position.”