The Sacramento Kings' first playoff game at Golden 1 Center was as loud as expected. Then, it got louder.

In their first playoff game since 2006, the Kings defeated the Golden State Warriors 126-123 in Game 1 to take an early advantage in the first-round series between the NBA's defending champions and high-flying upstarts.

De'Aaron Fox didn't need much time to acclimate to the playoffs in his first career appearance, going off for 38 points, 5 assists and 3 steals.

The energy was palpable in the arena before tipoff. Not only were the Kings facing the NBA's most dominant team of the last decade, they were facing their closest rival. It was personal, and you could hear it from the nosebleeds.

"Our fans were off the charts. It was deafening in there. It was extremely loud," Kings head coach Mike Brown told reporters after the game. "So you gotta take your hat off to them cause they brought it for us tonight and you could feel the energy."

The first two and a half quarters went the way Sacramento fans probably feared. The Kings showed the kind of attack that got them the third seed in the Western Conference and the highest offensive efficiency in the NBA, but the Warriors didn't seem to be facing anything they hadn't seen before.

After a close first half, the Warriors took a double-digit lead in the third quarter and had their feared shooters operational. Stephen Curry finished with 30 points, while Klay Thompson had 21 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.

The Kings found life later in the third, erasing a 10-point lead in the final three minutes to enter the fourth quarter tied. The fourth became an all-out war, with Curry and Fox exchanging haymakers.

A pair of Malik Monk free throws finally put the Kings up 3 points with 2.9 seconds left, then a game-tying attempt from Curry just missed.

A few minutes later, the beam was lit.

The Kings' offensive surge was overwhelming even by their standards. They scored 69 points in their final 45 possessions of the game, a scorching 1.53 points per game. In addition to Fox, Monk, one of the team's big acquisitions last offseason, was a big part of that success, finishing with 32 points on only 13 shots and making all 14 of his free throw attempts.

Fox and Monk became just the second pair of teammates to score more than 30 points in their postseason debuts. The only other duo was Alonzo Mourning and Kendall Gill with the 1993 Hornets. Each scored 30 points.

"That was my reason coming here to change the culture with my homie [Fox], and we knew we had a great chance. We just had to be together and we stayed together all year. We laugh, have fun. I think that's why we're just out there together," Monk said after the game.

Game 2 is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. PT in Sacramento. With all that has been made of the Warriors' struggles on the road, that game is suddenly looking very dangerous for the defending champs.