SACRAMENTO — The Warriors find themselves in unfamiliar territory.
Golden State has trailed a playoff series before but never has the team fallen 2-0 in any of its 27 series with Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson leading the charge.
However, that's the reality the Warriors are facing as the first-round series heads to San Francisco later this week for Games 3 and 4.
"It's exciting, right?" Green said Monday night as a menacing smile appeared on his face. "A new challenge."
Green was ejected in the fourth quarter of Monday's 114-106 loss to the Sacramento Kings after getting entangled with Kings big man Damontas Sabonis. His premature exit gave him plenty of time to ponder the rarity of his team's situation.
"I was actually thinking about that, like, 'Man, this is one we haven't seen yet,'" Green said. "And we've conquered all the rest of them, so why not go conquer this one? Would be a lot of fun, a lot of fun."
Curry and Thompson shared their fellow four-time champion's sentiment.
"Gotta embrace it," Curry said. "You do this as long as we have… 28 series or whatever and we've never been in this situation so we gotta stay together, stay locked in on things we need to do better."
The "things" Curry mentioned that impeded the Warriors in their first two games of this best-of-seven series mirror troubling trends from the regular season.
The Warriors turned the ball over on their first possession in both games in Sacramento and committed a total of 37 turnovers in the first two games of this season, including 22 in Monday's loss.
They also allowed the Kings to take 61 free throws — 16 more than Golden State in this series.
Green has said all season long that it isn't as simple as flipping a switch and — poof! — the team's problems are solved.
"Your issues are your issues," he said after their latest loss. "You have to work through them to figure them out."
The Warriors know they need to be better at the point of attack if they want to limit fouling on defense. Curry also said they need to do a better job at controlling the game's momentum early so the Kings don't have a chance to find their flow on offense.
"They're young, athletic, they're trying to play with force. We can match that," he said. "But we just got to play with a little bit more IQ in terms of what we're trying to do on both ends of the floor."
In both games, the Warriors were in the fight down the stretch, though the Kings ultimately prevailed.
Despite the back-to-back loss, the Warriors see no reason to hit the panic button just yet.
"The beautiful part is we have an opportunity Thursday," Thompson said. "While it's been ugly the first couple of games as far as fouling and turnovers, we can bounce back in a great way and I know we will."
The Warriors have struggled on the road all season, winning only 11 of their 41 away games this season. After failing to pick up a victory in either of its first two tries in Sacramento, Golden State is hoping to turn this series around in the Bay.
The Warriors do have a much better track record in San Francisco, especially in the playoffs.
Golden State won 33 games at home this season and boasts an 11-1 postseason record at Chase Center.
"At the end of the day, we gotta win one win here [in Sacramento], somehow, someway, whatever game it is," Curry said.
"There's an old saying, the series doesn't start until somebody wins on the other team's home floor. We want to get ourselves back into it, it's gonna start with a focused effort on Game 3 at home, get our crowd into it early and trying to throw the first punch in terms of how we come out with the right intentions."
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