ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Sacramento Kings (6-11) were in Oakland to face the Golden State Warriors (17-0). Both teams were on the second night of a back-to-back.
Harrison Barnes was out for the Warriors with a sprained ankle. Brandon Rush started in Barnes’ place.
Caron Butler (sprained left ankle) and DeMarcus Cousins (lower back strain) were out for the Kings.
To counter Draymond Green‘s mobility, Kings head coach George Karl started Omri Casspi at power forward instead of Willie Cauley-Stein.
1st Quarter – Shhhhh-ef Curry With a Quiet 17
The Warriors were in their black slate jerseys tonight which had the Kings in their home whites.
Golden State got out to a poor shooting start. Draymond Green’s first jumper was flat, Rush missed a reverse layup, Andrew Bogut missed a shot-put from seven feet out, Stephen Curry missed his first three, and Green airballed a late-shotclock three-pointer from the left wing.
The biggest highlights were Klay Thompson taking Rudy Gay off the dribble on an iso on the right side of the lane and Green hammering Rajon Rondo on a screen where Rondo got called for the foul…
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…as well as this touchdown pass from Green to Thompson:
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Early on, the Kings held a 16-8 advantage with 5:57 to go as Andre Iguodala checked in for Rush.
Curry finally got going as he got this catch-and-shoot from Bogut, with Thompson providing the pin-down screen:
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Things were a bit dicey as Iguodala committed two straight turnovers after drilling a three-pointer as the Kings’ defense collapsed late in a possession, but another Curry triple, unassisted, put the Warriors back on track, trailing just 17-20 with 3:04 remaining.
Golden State inched back in the game as Curry got to the free throw line three times, the second of which he ended with an uncontested dunk that rattled home, although all the players had stopped when the whistle was blown up on Darren Collison (the Kings were already in the penalty).
The third was a “superstar call” as he drove and got minimally bumped by Quincy Acy.
Curry added a three from the top on a give-and-go with Festus Ezeli…
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…which answered Gay’s drive into the lane for a layup, and Ezeli scored an alley-oop layup right before the horn to pull the Warriors ahead heading into the second period, 30-29:
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2nd Quarter – Mo Buckets
The Warriors’ second unit went on an 11-0 run to start the second stanza as Leandro Barbosa continued his hot shooting from last night with a trey, followed by an Ezeli dunk down low with the extra effort in traffic…
…and Marreese Speights with three jumpers without a miss, including this improbable banker:
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That gave the Warriors a 41-32 lead with 9:00 to go in the half.
But out of a timeout, the Kings went on an 8-2 run capped by a Kosta Koufos dunk, closing Golden State’s lead to 43-40 with 5:55 to go.
Per sideline reporter Rosalyn Gold-Onwude on the TV broadcast, Curry was vocal in the next timeout called by Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton, calling for the team to regroup.
Thompson sparked the Warriors out of the timeout with a three-pointer…
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…and a feed into Ezeli for a dunk, and with 2:47 to go and a TV timeout called, Golden State inched ahead 51-42 as the Kings shooting percentage went south, starting the quarter at a not-so-great clip of 44.4% (12-for-27) and ending at 32.7% (18-for-55).
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Closing out the quarter, Ian Clark, who had come in for Barbosa, passed up an open three on a swing pass, attacked the paint, and dropped off a pass for a Bogut dunk.
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The Warriors got the ball on what was expected to be the last possession and Clark made an extra pass after Curry went to Bogut who found Clark in the corner, but it was too late in the shotclock and Green couldn’t get the three from the left elbow in time.
Marco Belinelli missed a three on the next try for the Kings and the Warriors took a 56-46 lead into halftime.
Curry was still stuck on 17 points while Thompson had 9. Green tallied 6 rebounds and 5 assists while Gay led the Kings with 14 on 5-for-17 field.
Sacramento shot just 6-for-28 in the second period.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @j_lipstknscissors)
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