The In Season Tournament Delivered Again After Malik Monk Buried The Warriors With An Outrageous Game Winner To Cap Off One Of The Craziest Comebacks Of The Season

At this point, I think the time has come where we all need to tip our cap to Adam Silver. After a thrilling night of compelling NBA basketball in late November, the tournament has been nothing other than a smashing success. The games in the Group Stage were entertaining as hell, it was fun as shit to follow along all the different scenarios with the point differential, the fact that things have been this entertaining and we haven't even gotten to the knock out stage games yet is a great sign of what's to come.

After such an epic night, it was only right that the Kings/Warriors ended things with one of the craziest games of the season. These two obviously have their beef from their playoff series last Spring, not to mention the Warriors had won the previous two meetings earlier this season, so adding a win and your in type of scenario to their game tonight added just enough extra juice to take things up a level.

The scenario was simple. If the Kings won, they advanced. For the Warriors to advance, they had to win by 12+. Anything less than that, the Kings move on. Things started off about as well as you could ask as a Warriors fan, as they finally got a game where their main players were all hitting shots in the same game, something that hasn't exactly happened a whole lot this season. Curry looked good, Wiggins and Klay were making shots, they looked like the Warriors of old.

With a fairly dominant first half, it looked like the Warriors were well on their way to punching their ticket to the next round. But here's the thing. Anyone who watches enough late night NBA League Pass will tell you that all the Kings do is find a way to play these crazy close games at home. Every night it always feels like no matter how much they trail by, once they get to the 4th quarter and De'Aaron Fox starts doing his clutch time shit, the Kings always come back and have a close finish. They almost always make it worth staying up for.

That's why it shouldn't have surprised anyone when the Kings did exactly that. The Kings started the final frame down 104-95, still in good shape to make the next round but still a ways to go to ultimately come back and win the game after being down 17. As important as advancing in the tournament may be, at this point the win against GS is more important for the Kings. Once the clock started in the 4th, it was on

You could tell once we got to around the 7-8 minute mark the Warriors started to really press given the point differential. It wasn't just about the win for them, they needed points. It was 1000% on their minds and you could see it in their play. We saw quicker shots, not a whole lot of ball movement, miscommunications and turnovers, and ultimately it played a factor in their demise. That's a cool element to this tournament I never really considered, mostly because we've never experienced anything like this before. If the Warriors simply had to win to get in, I'm pretty sure their entire approach is a little different towards the end of this game. Unfortunately for them, they did this instead

Why Kerr pulled Moses Moody when he was on literal fire was certainly a choice, a decision I'm sure Warriors fans were thrilled with

and it's not as if Wiggins provided any sort of defensive upgrade considering how the Kings closed out this win

The Power of the Beam man, I dunno how anyone could still deny it at this point. 

There is simply something about this team and that building in a close game. Fox making plays, guys making huge momentum stops on defense followed by a dagger three. It's been like this for over a year in Sacramento and it's awesome to watch every single time. The way Malik Monk has basically recreated who he is as a player and what his career looks like has been super impressive, and he showed that in the final 47 seconds.

While the games between these two have always been exciting and I don't think they necesarily needed the In Season Tournament to create buzz, there's no denying that it added to the fun and played a role in how both teams played. The win is huge for any potential H2H tiebreaker come the playoffs, and now the Kings get to host the Pelicans in what should be another awesome game. 

The Elite 8 is now set, and I don't see a bad matchup on the board

If the games are anything like what we saw across the league tonight, we're in for one hell of a finish to this thing.