"If we didn't need that game so badly I could talk about what a great game it was, but I'm not going to do that," Kings Head Coach Paul Westphal, addressing the media following Tuesday night's game.

This is why we love sports.

Because at any given time, on any given night, you may witness something incredible.

A few years ago, the NBA had a slogan: "Where Amazing Happens."

Tuesday night, amazing happened, all over the Kings’ collective faces.

On Tuesday night, a bad (9-18 record coming in, having lost 14 of their last 16 games) and beat-up (missing their starters at point guard and center, Stephan Curry and Andres Biedrins) Golden State Warriors squad came to Arco for a tilt against your Sacramento Kings.

The Kings were less banged-up, missing only sometime-starting forward Jason Thompson, but they made up for their lack of injuries by being even more lackluster than their NorCal rivals (5-20 coming in, having lost, well, 20 of their last 25).

It had all the makings of an awful game, and for most of the night, it lived up to the billing. But thanks to a furious and totally improbable fourth quarter comeback by the visiting team (epic collapse by the home team?), it ended up being one of the most memorable games I've ever had the privilege of witnessing.

The Warriors trailed by 16 points with 9:20 left in the game.

They trailed by 5 points with 19.3 seconds left.

They trailed by 4 points with 3.4 seconds left.

Through all that, they ended up winning the game, 117-109 in overtime, as the Kings were unable to make any of those seemingly insurmountable leads hold up.
 

There was no inkling of the epic finish to come as the Kings struggled out of the gates. The Warriors shot 65 percent in the first quarter to jump out to a 26-18 lead over the ice-cold home team (29 percent). The only reason the Kings were able to stay within shouting distance was the inspired play of Beno Udrih, who had 12 points on 4 of 5 shooting, en route to a career-high 34-point night.

The Warriors kept the Kings at arm’s length for the first half the second quarter, maintaining an eight-point lead until Tyreke Evans finally broke through with his first field goal of the night (after an 0-for-6 start) with 5:11 left before halftime.

This seemed to spark the Kings, as they played out the half with a new level of intensity.

Carl Landry (13 points in the quarter) took over, scoring or assisting on each of the next five Kings baskets, but they could still pull no closer than six points until Donte Greene scored five straight in the final minute to cut the lead to one.

Following two free throws by Monte Ellis with 1.3 seconds remaining, Demarcus Cousins threw a perfect length-of-the court baseball pass to Tyreke, who made a touch pass to Pooh Jeter, who laid it in at the buzzer. It was beautiful basketball play to return the defecit to one, get the crowd on it's feet and give the home team the momentum going into the half.

The third quarter started with the Warriors scoring the first five points on jumpers by Ellis (36 points) and Reggie Williams (24 points). The Kings didn't make their first bucket of the quarter until Greene hit his second three-pointer of the night at the 10:04 mark.

That first bucket, however, was the start of a 36-16 run wherein they thoroughly outclassed the Warriors. It may have been the best 10-minute stretch of basketball that the Kings have played all season: crisp ball movement, attacking the basket, getting to the line, forcing turnovers . . . for a few fleeting moments the Kings looked like, *gasp*, a very good basketball team.

Of course, the Warriors have a knack for making other teams look good.

But, then again, so do the Kings.

The fourth quarter started with the teams trading buckets, and at 9:20, Landry (22 points) scored his last points of the night to put the Kings ahead 94-78.

They would not score again until Evans hit a layup with 4:21 to go.  Luckily for them, the Warriors weren't exactly lighting it up, and despite being shut out for nearly five full minutes, they still held a 96-89 lead at the time.  With 2:05 left, Ellis made a driving layup to make the score 98-93.

The two teams proceeded to trade turnovers, ill-advised three-point attempts and general poor play for the next 100 or so seconds.

Then it got ridiculous.

For some reason, Francisco Garcia took and missed a long three-pointer with 25 seconds left, despite having well over 10 seconds left on the shot clock and a five-point lead.

Egregious error No. 1.

David Lee rebounded the miss and pushed the ball to Reggie Williams, who got Udrih up in the air beyond the three-point line and drew the shooting foul with 19 seconds left.

Egregious error No. 2.

Williams missed the first free throw, made the second and missed the third. The Kings failed to box out, and Radmonovich got the rebound.

Egregious error No. 3.

Radmonovich swung the ball out to Dorrell Wright beyond the three-point line, and he got Landry off his feat and drew another shooting foul with 15 seconds left.

Egregious error No. 4.

Wright made two of three to make the score 98-96, and with 14 seconds, the Warriors sent Udrih to the line. He made both free throws. Kings 100, Warriors 96.
After Radmonovich hit a running hook shot with 10 seconds left, the Warriors again fouled Udrih, who again hit both free throws. Kings 102, Warriors 98.
Following a time-out, Ellis missed a three-pointer, but Williams got the rebound and was fouled on his follow with 3.4 seconds left.

Egregious error No. 5.

Williams made the first free throw, then missed the second. Cousins mishandled the rebound, and it squirted out of bounds.

Egregious error No. 6.

Wright was inbounding the ball down three with two seconds to play, and was left unfettered by the Kings defenders, which is fine, if you want an extra defender to keep the players on the court from getting open. But then they left Radmanovich unattended above the top of the key, Wright found him and he drained a 28-foot bomb as time expired.

Egregious error No. 7, all in the final 26 seconds.

Game tied at 102.

Kings announcer Grant Napear was nonplussed: "You know, honestly, if I wasn't sitting here watching this, I would not believe it . . . we're gonna go to overtime."

The Kings scored the first four points of overtime, but couldn't keep it up. Ellis ended up outscoring the Kings by himself in the extra period, 9-7.
Final score: Warriors 117, Kings 109.

I'll give the final word to Westphal: "Amazing things happened. How do you explain those? Nine-hundred ninety-nine times out of 1,000, the game is put away . . . There's crazy endings in the NBA, and we were the victim of one tonight."

 Amazing. 

All images are the fine work of the one and only David Alvarez.