Curry's historic 50-point performance leads Warriors past Kings in Game 7

Stephen Curry scored a playoff career-high 50 points and answered time and again to will the defending champions on in their quest for a repeat, Kevon Looney grabbed 21 rebounds, and the Golden State Warriors advanced to the Western Conference semifinals by beating the Sacramento Kings 120-100 in Sunday's winner-take-all Game 7.

The visiting Warriors fell behind 2-0 in this series then won twice on the road in front of a hostile, cowbell-clanging crowd in the state capital to become the first reigning champion to drop the first two games and win any postseason series.

Now, bring on LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference semifinals with all that NBA Finals history with James and Golden State dating to his Cleveland days. Game 1 is Tuesday night at Chase Center.

Sacramento's special comeback season is over long before these young Kings had planned. After snapping a 16-year playoff drought — longest in NBA history — under Coach of the Year Mike Brown, playoff-starved Sacramento earned a No. 3 seed but missed advancing to the second round for the first time since 2004. No more Light the Beam at Golden 1 Center this season.

Curry shot 20 of 38 with seven threes and delivered after almost every big play by Sacramento as Splash Brother Klay Thompson struggled on both ends again. But Thompson came through in some crucial moments, too.

Malik Monk's putback and three-point play with 14.6 seconds remaining in the third pulled Sacramento within six only for Thompson to hit a long three and convert a four-point play to make it 91-81 heading into the final 12 minutes.

Domantas Sabonis had 22 points, eight rebounds and seven assists but the Warriors held De'Aaron Fox in check as he scored 16 points on 5-for-19 shooting in his third game playing with a broken index finger on his shooting hand.

Trailing 58-56 at halftime, the Warriors opened the second half with a 13-4 burst to take a 69-62 lead and force a Kings timeout at the 7:50 mark.

Sacramento scored early on with a beautiful combination of classic give-and-goes and long jumpers off crisp passing around the perimeter.

But Curry kept coming, and Looney kept scrapping to create second and third opportunities during his brilliant series on the boards.

Curry fired from way back with precision and fearlessly drove to the basket with jaw-dropping acrobatics all afternoon to send Kings fans to the exits late in the fourth.

Butler powers Heat past Knicks in Game 1

Gabe Vincent scored 20 points for the visiting Heat, who became the sixth No. 8 seed to beat a No. 1 when they toppled Milwaukee in the first round and continue to look nothing like a team that needed to win a play-in game just to get the final post-season berth in the East.

They averaged 124 points in that series behind Butler's 37.6 per game, but they pulled this one out with old-fashioned defence and rebounding that has always worked so well before for them at this time of year.

Kyle Lowry scored 18 points for Miami, while Bam Adebayo had 16.

Canada's RJ Barrett scored 26 points and Jalen Brunson had 25 for the fifth-seeded Knicks, who are in the second round of the playoffs for the first time since 2013. They started strong and led most of the first half, but the Heat eventually got the Madison Square Garden crowd quieter and quieter as the game went on.

Game 2 is Tuesday night.

They could've used his shooting on a day they went 7 for 34 behind the arc, missing a chance to break open the game early and then hindering any chances of coming back.

The Heat fell behind by 12 points in the second quarter, but that wasn't going to faze a team that eliminated deficits of 15 and then 16 points in the last two games against Milwaukee. They gradually narrowed the deficit before halftime, blew by the Knicks with a 21-5 run in the third quarter and pulled away to a double-digit lead in the fourth.