Sacramento Kings' playoff hopes run through Domantas Sabonis - ESPN

DOMANTAS SABONISIS the funnel through which the NBA's best offense flows, and it all begins when he grabs a defensive rebound and dribbles up the court, his 7-foot body proceeding with its uniquely equine gait. He generally picks up his dribble near the top of the key, holding the ball in one hand away from the defender like an adult playing keep-away from a child.

From here, with the ball extended and his Sacramento Kings teammates fanned out around him, the fun begins in earnest. His teammates begin a vertiginous series of laps around him. He either gives the ball to one of them or lets them pass through, and each time he screens the moving defender, then the next one. When the offense is humming — routinely during the regular season but intermittently through the first four games of Round 1 against the Golden State Warriors — Sabonis looks like he's using the ball as a baton to conduct an orchestra.

There is a certain destructive grace to Sabonis' game. The destruction comes from the incessant picks and the shoulder-fired drives to the hoop, many of which end with him scoring on point-blank shots that look like a man shoving a tennis ball into a garden hose. The grace, more difficult to discern, comes from his touch around the rim and the court vision that helped him rank fifth in the NBA in total assists.

«Domas is the anchor,» Kings guard Malik Monk says. «Everything goes through Domas.»

The familiarity of a seven-game playoff set presents unique challenges, and Sabonis, befitting his stature, has been the focus of the Warriors' defensive strategy. Normally, the court shrinks in the playoffs, but Sabonis is finding himself facing wide-open spaces. While turning a two-game series deficit into a 3-2 lead heading into