ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors played host to the Sacramento Kings, losers of five straight games, at #Roaracle tonight. Andre Iguodala took the night off and Festus Ezeli was out still with a sprained ankle. For the Kings, former Warrior Carl Landry was out with a right wrist sprain.
1ST QUARTER: 22-2 Run Provides A Cushion
The Kings got off to an okay start as DeMarcus Cousins drilled a right elbow jumper, to the cheer of the not-insignificant Kings crowd at Oracle, then Darren Collison scored an uncontested layup as the Warriors lost track of the diminutive point guard on a broken play.
But the Warriors soon got in a rhythm and went on a 16-0 tear. Golden State ran some action with Andrew Bogut and Klay Thompson on the left side that, with the Kings anticipating the play and the Warriors adjusting to the adjustment, left Thompson wide open on the left elbow for a three.
Bogut then set a high pick beyond the arc for Klay with the ball, giving Rudy Gay problems on the recovery. Thompson immediately pivoted after the pick, after dribbling right-to-left, and calmly buried the three-pointer.
After a Bogut lay-in inside that sent Cousins reeling backward, then an airball missed three-pointer early in the shotclock by Ben McLemore, Kings head coach Tyrone Corbin called timeout with 8:44 to go and the Warriors up, 12-6.
The Warriors weren’t done with their run, however, as Bogut got a bunny inside assisted by a Thompson drive-and-dump, Kings point guard Darren Collison made a bad pass, and Draymond Green capitalized with a trey early in the shotclock, assisted by Stephen Curry, to make it 20-6, Golden State, capping a 16-0 run that lasted until 7:21 remaining.
Corbin called another timeout after a Warriors sequence featuring a Harrison Barnes reverse layup, Thompson swatting McLemore at the rim, and Barnes cleaning up Klay’s missed three with this one-handed gem off the glass:
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Curry was fired up and threw his fist in the air in approval. After the timeout, a three-pointer by Nick Stauskas ended a 22-2 run by the Dubs.
Up 26-11, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr took the opportunity to give Brandon Rush a chance to break out of his slump, inserting him for Barnes.
The Kings made a mini-run as Thompson embarrassingly got his reverse layup blocked by the rim (to which he shook his head in disgust with himself), Curry and Rush made bad passes and Green let the ball slip out of bounds on a dribble drive. A Collison layup trimmed the Golden State lead to 31-22 with just under a minute to play.
The quarter ended with a Curry trey met by a Cousins and-one at the rim against Green, although Rush did well to help and block Cousins’ first attempt.
The Warriors took a 35-24 lead into the second frame. Klay led the way again for the Warriors with 10 points on 2-for-3 from downtown. Green added 9 points on 3-for-4 shooting, all from beyond the arc, and Curry added 5 points, 4 assists. The Dubs assisted on 10 of their 14 made field goals in the opening frame.
Cousins led the Kings with 8 points on 3-for-8 field.
2ND QUARTER: Iron Unkind!
The second period began with some vintage David Lee. After Thompson missed a jumper, Lee was in the right position and missed a tip-in putback, missed the putback of the missed putback, then on the third try, got fouled and made the bucket with the harm.
Corbin wasn’t happy with that and called another timeout, with the Warriors up, 40-31, with 8:48 to play in the half.
Not long afterwards, Rudy Gay, who had gone 0-for-5, picked up a foul on a Klay jumper. Gay got a technical for arguing the call then, after Thompson missed the technical free throw, picked up a second technical foul and calmly walked to the locker room, passing by the Warriors’ baseline on the way.
Thompson continued to display his two-way prowess, blocking a Ramon Sessions layup at the rim. However, that led to a bad alley-oop pass to a leaping Justin Holiday, who smiled on the way back on defense, acknowledging the missed opportunity in a positive way.
After a nice left-side downward-angled leaning floater by the tall Shaun Livingston, Klay continued his defensive feast as he and Lee combined for a steal, but Barnes couldn’t capitalize, missing a three at the other end. But Thompson made a jump pass to Bogut who converted a baby hook and Bogut took a charge on Cousins at the other end, and at the 6:04 mark and the Dubs up, 48-35, Curry checked back in.
Ironically, though, the Warriors ended the half in “iron unkind” fashion, clanking six three-point attempts after Curry made one. The only buckets they got were dunks inside by Bogut and Marreese Speights against bad rotation defense by the Kings, plus one of two free throws by Barnes on a drive hacked by Cousins.
Meanwhile, Cousins led the Kings’ attempts to chip away at the lead, scoring 10 points, six of them from the charity stripe, as Quincy Miller and McLemore contributed shots from downtown to trim the halftime lead for the Warriors to just 56-51.
Cousins led all scorers with 18 points on 5-for-11 from the field, 8-for-9 from the free throw line, and 6 rebounds. Thompson led the Warriors with 13 points, while Curry added 8 points, 5 assists, but also 3 turnovers. Green still had his 9 points from the first quarter and Bogut added 8. However, Golden State committed 10 turnovers in the half.
The Warriors shot just 7-for-21 from beyond the arc (33.3%) and 21-for-47 (44.7%) from the field overall, although they also held the Kings to 16-for-39 from the field as well (41.0%).
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