The Golden State Warriors were at SleepTrain Arena to face the Sacramento Kings. The Warriors had Festus Ezeli back, marking the first time in general manager Bob Myers‘ tenure that he had a completely healthy 15-man roster.
1ST QUARTER: No Buckets!
The Warriors got out to a rough start as Klay Thompson committed two early turnovers and had a couple of shots rattle in and out after torching the Kings a week ago with 37 blistering points in the third quarter.
The Kings were hot, especially Ben McLemore, who scored 11 points in the quarter in the first six minutes, more than the Warriors as a team, and also bothered Thompson into some missed shots.
Andrew Bogut got an early block and it was a sign of things to come. Meanwhile, Thompson got going a little bit, although the Kings got out to an early 17-8 lead:
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After a Draymond Green block on a Darren Collison jumper, Thompson’s resultant bucket in transition cut the Sacramento lead to 20-14.
Stephen Curry finally got going by hitting a three after Bogut stole the ball on a DeMarcus Cousins post up, and Green found Curry on the trail pass to trim the Kings’ lead to 22-17 with four minutes to play in the first flame. Curry and Thompson had been a combined 0-for-4 from downtown up until that point.
Ten minutes into the first quarter, Cousins stayed in, so that meant Bogut, who normally checks out sooner, also stayed in. That was a good thing for the Warriors.
On some typical high pivot action with Bogut, he got a pass from Curry then dropped a bounce pass between his legs to Andre Iguodala, who drove in and pulled up for a jumper at the free throw line, to give the Dubs their first lead, 23-22, with 1:23 to go.
With 47.9 seconds remaining, Bogut swatted Kings power forward Jason Thompson:
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That prompted TV play-by-play announcer to annoint Bogut with the “No Buckets” nickname.
The bench unit started to trickle in after Golden State made a surge to take the lead late in the quarter, and they kept the pressure on Sacramento.
Iguodala fed Marreese Speights will a laser into traffic and Speights did well to catch it and, while falling, feed Bogut for a dunk:
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To make matters worse for Sacramento, Jason Thompson climbed over the back to get a rebound near the buzzer and, with the Kings in the penalty, the Warriors added two shots at the charity stripe with 0.1 seconds left. Speights split the pair and the Warriors took a 29-22 lead into the second frame.
In the process, the Warriors held the Kings to zero field goals over final 5:54 of first quarter. Meanwhile, Golden State went on a 15-0 run, 19-2 over the final 6:06. Six different players scored during the run.
2ND QUARTER: Bench Unit Continues To Put On The Hurt
The Warriors’ bench unit extended the run to a 23-0 unanswered streak after Iguodala dunked a run-out break after getting a steal. After a Leandro Barbosa coast-to-coast bucket, Iguodala got another dunk on the break. The Warriors led 35-22 with 10:16 to play in the half.
After a timeout by Kings head coach Tyrone Corbin, Iguodala got his third dunk of the night by juking Rudy Gay from the left baseline and finishing with a slam.
Speights capped off the bench unit’s strong play with three consecutive #MoBuckets jumpers, plus a touchdown catch from Iguodala, who feigned a quarterback throw in celebration, and the starters were set to return at the next timeout with 4:34 remaining and Golden State with a comfortable 52-38 lead.
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Sure enough, Curry immediately got a backdoor layup from Bogut and Green stole a post entry past to Cousins, got the outlet out to Curry, who gave Harrison Barnes a perfectly angled bounce pass that left the Kings in the dust, with Barnes finishing in dramatic style, double-clutching in mid-air for the throwdown above the rim.
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The Warriors beautiful play continued as Klay got a dribble-side-step three after Bogut snagged a defensive rebound away from Cousins, and Bogut finally caught an alley-oop from Curry, as Cousins was left napping.
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It was complete domination by Golden State in the final 18 minutes of the first half and they took a commanding 63-42 lead into halftime.
Curry led the way with 15 points and Speights added 11, but it was all about their defense as the held the Kings to 37% shooting. On offense, the Warriors had 22 assists on 26 made field goals.
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