SLEEP TRAIN ARENA, SACRAMENTO, CA — The Golden State Warriors got their 2014-15 season off to a start by visiting the Sacramento Kings.
PRE-GAME
Head coach Steve Kerr reported that David Lee‘s hamstring could not heal miraculously quick enough and would be unavailable. Draymond Green got the start, however, Andrew Bogut reportedly had an illness and was questionable. When the opening jump arrived, Bogut was there.
That meant the depth of the Warriors would be challenged.
During morning shootaround, Kerr said the approach would be as follows:
“We can’t let them off the hook. We’ve got to be solid. If we start giving them possessions with careless passes and let them get into transition, if we foul too much…if we let them get simple back cuts to the basket for lay-ins…Be smart, be sound, and allow your ability to shine through and take over.”
FIRST QUARTER
The first quarter saw the Warriors with some more carelessness with the ball, as they committed four early turnovers again.
But on the bright side, Klay Thompson was scoring, Stephen Curry was active on defense getting rebounds, Festus Ezeli was magnificent off the bench, and Marreese Speights did what “Mo” does best, hitting jumpers.
Some highlights:
- Thompson got a great steal with the shotclock winding down, knowing that his man had to get off a shot. So he batted the ball down, got the steal, but his touchdown pass to Curry was intercepted. He raised his hand as if to say, “My fault,” to Curry and Curry answered back raising his own hand, too.
- Bogut did a nice job bothering DeMarcus Cousins, who started 0-for-6, but Cousins persevered. Bogut then collected personal fouls, forcing Kerr to go to his bench.
- Ezeli subbed in a 6:00 and made his presence felt. On a great sequence, he rose straight up against a Cousins attack, so as not to be called a foul. Thompson got the loose ball and delivered an assist to a layup by a streaking Leandro Barbosa.
- Darren Collison had a blow-by on Curry, but Curry turned around and yelled something at Ezeli, who was way late on the help.
- Speights gave Ezeli a “clever” assist (as tweeted by Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area), drawing attention under the basket then delivering a nice feed to Festus for the slam.
- Ognjen Kuzmic and Justin Holiday both checked in with less than 2:00 to go in the quarter.
The Warriors took a 25-23 lead heading into the second frame. The Warriors had tallied four careless turnovers at this point.
SECOND QUARTER
The second period will be best remembered as the moment Madison Bumgarner pitched the ninth inning to secure the third San Francisco Giants World Series in five years.
The Sleep Train Arena fans, many of them Giants supporters, cheered wildly as play went on late in the quarter. Nobody really cared what was happening on the court. And that was probably a good thing, as not-the-greatest basketball was being played by both teams.
Some notables:
- Curry had a pretty nice “elite defense” play, where he closed out nicely on a three-pointer shooter, who swung the ball to Cousins at the top of the key. The Warriors’ defense was so collapsed at that point, daring Cousins to shoot the jumper. As Cousins pondered what to do, Curry bolted over and stole the ball cleanly, laying it up at the other end.
- Draymond Green played some terrific defense, sliding his feet, on the versatile and athletic Rudy Gay, who was trying to do too much.
- Ezeli collected his third personal foul, along with Bogut, so Kuzmic came in to defend Cousins. Kuzmic even ran the floor well on one sequence, but Harrison Barnes committed a charge and we never got to see what would’ve happened if Barnes had dumped it down to Kuzmic in the paint in the early offense.
With 39.7 seconds to go, Bumgarner was on the feed at press row executing “torture ball”. At 25.1 seconds to go, the crowd cheered the win, although about a minute before, a small minority that was probably listening on the radio and not prone to any TV delays had already cheered.
The Kings led, 49-47, going into halftime. Thompson had 12 points and was doing a good job getting to the line, to go along with 3 assists and 2 steals. Curry had 12 points and 5 rebounds, but zero three-pointers made as well as no assists.
The Warriors, however, were still in it primarily due to the spark Speights provided off the bench, with 10 points and 3 rebounds.
A putback by Green on a missed Thompson three-pointer late in the quarter was the Warriors’ only offensive rebound of the night.
The Warriors led, 73-63, after the 3rd quarter. Curry was up to 17 points. The Kings countered with Cousins at 17 points and 8 rebounds.
THIRD QUARTER
The Warriors were at one point 1-for-13 on three-pointers. Bogut had 4 fouls, Ezeli 4, and Curry 3. After Thompson collected two turnovers in a row on dribble-drives, Gay stole the ball and had a slam dunk, prompting Kerr to call timeout.
That was the turning point, as the Kings were up 54-51 with less than seven minutes to go.
The Warriors then went on one of the ugliest 19-2 runs you’ll ever see, as the Dubs ended the quarter with 17 turnovers, with the Kings guilty of 20.
Golden State, however, improved its three-point shooting to 3-for-16, with Curry extending his consecutive games streak to 71.
Shaun Livingston made an appearance with 19 seconds to play and the Warriors pulled away for good, 73-63.
FOURTH QUARTER
The Warriors held serve in the fourth, as Speights even got a dunk, Green a couple threes, Barnes an and-one, and Curry with the wizardry, scissoring through the Kings defense. The Kings couldn’t keep up with all of that talent and teamwork and Golden State ended up winning 95-77.
Curry ended with 24 points, 10 rebounds, 6 steals, and upped his assist total to 5 when all was said and done. Thompson added 19 and Green co-led with Curry on the boards with 10, with the Dubs’ bigs in foul trouble all night long.
The Warriors pieced together a convincing win, but still committed 22 turnovers.
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