That was not a black hole imploding on the court at Sleep Train Arena.
In scientific terms, that was the Sacramento Kings’ third-quarter collapse. The Golden State Warriors ripped off a 19-2 run in the period as they spoiled the Kings’ home opener 95-77. With former owners and players from the original 1985-86 team in attendance, Sacramento shot 30.8 percent for the evening and made only 24 field goals.
“We’re going to watch film tomorrow to show the over-dribbling, the holding, the lack of ball movement and the unwillingness to move the ball. Then, in practice, we’re going to have to get back to doing drills where it’s 4 on 4 or 5 on 5, with no dribbling or a two-dribble limit — whatever we have to do,” Michael Malone told the media.
Poor looks, blown layups and erratic ball movement played a large role in the Kings’ abysmal shooting and contributed to their obscene total of 27 turnovers. Sacramento committed 10 turnovers in the third quarter alone, but starting point guard Darren Collison was not to fault for the chaotic scene. In his Kings debut, Collison scored 13 points, dished out eight assists and lost the ball once. He also contributed five steals.
“Well, we only had one player that had more than one assist tonight and his name is Darren Collison,” a frustrated Malone said in postgame. “He had eight, a bunch of other guys had one, and some guys had zero. Obviously, Darren was attacking and I thought that he did a very good job defensively on Stephen Curry.”
The Kings backcourt held Curry and Klay Thompson to 4-of-17 shooting behind the arc, and the Warriors to 6-of-27 overall, but Sacramento misfired 3-of-18 behind deep. In his regular season debut, Nik Stauskas led the team with two 3-pointers on seven attempts, and Collison chipped in another.
Sacramento grinded to a 49-47 halftime lead in part thanks to its relentlessness attacking of the rim. While DeMarcus Cousins and others botched point-blank shots at times, the Kings earned 23 free-throw attempts by the half and made 19.
Cousins finished the night with 20 points on 4-of-14 field goals, 11 rebounds and six turnovers. Rudy Gay produced 14 points on 5-of-15 shooting, nine rebounds and three turnovers.
The home opener wasn’t all doom and gloom, however. Cousins preached after the game how there’s always something to take away following a performance, even a blowout as ugly as tonight’s.
“You always learn from a loss; that’s the biggest thing. I think we did a pretty decent job defensively. Some credit to us and some to them just missing shots, but I think we did a fairly good job defensively. Offensively, we stunk up the floor.”
Curry led the Warriors with 24 points, Thompson added 19 and Marreese Speights surprised the world with 16. The Kings host the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday before embarking on a two-game road trip.
Notes and Analysis
- DeMarcus Cousins couldn’t find his shot early, but that didn’t stop him from scoring 12 points before the intermission on 10-for-14 shooting from the line. With Bogut on the bench with foul trouble, Cousins tried to assert himself in the second half but just ended up picking up fouls. The Kings center finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds, despite shooting just 4-for-14 from the field overall. If he could have stayed on the floor, the Kings would have had a shot in this one.
- Rookie Nik Stauskas looked completely comfortable in his first game as a pro. The 21-year-old guard scored nine points on 3-of-5 shooting in 12 first-half minutes. His second-half numbers weren’t great, but the rookie couldn’t buy a call. Welcome to the NBA, kid.
- Rudy Gay looked sluggish to start, but like Cousins, he found a way to stuff the stat sheet. Gay finished with 14 points and nine rebounds in 34 minutes of action, but he forced the action, especially in isolation situations against Andre Iguodala.
- Darren Collison’s stats don’t jump off the page, but he gave Steph Curry fits tonight. After winning the starting point guard position during training camp, Collison played a big 36 minutes tonight, finishing with 13 points, eight assists and – steals. This is the type of performance the Kings need out Collison on a nightly basis.
- Carl Landry was the forgotten man a season ago, but tonight against his former teammates, the 31-year-old power-forward shined. With Cousins and Thompson struggling with foul trouble, Landry dropped in eight points and grabbed seven rebounds in 18 minutes. The Kings could have used a little more Landry tonight.
- Ramon Sessions came undone in the third quarter. The veteran point guard turned the ball over four times in a two-minute stretch before getting the hook from Malone. Sessions played a total of 10 minutes on the night, finishing with three points on 1-of-3 shooting.
- Ben McLemore, Jason Thompson, Derrick Williams and Ramon Sessions struggled. This team needs to fire on all cylinders to have a chance to knock off a team like Golden State, and tonight, they needed more from these rotational players.
- Stat of the Night: Kings turned the ball over 27 times as a team and finished with just 13 assists. They also shot just 30.8 percent from the field in the loss.
Quote of the Game
Michael Malone on the Kings’ collapse
“I think it was the 5:40 mark in the third when we were up by one, and we turned into the Keystone Cops. They went on a 15-2 run, and we couldn’t even get off a shot. Our offense, or lack thereof, was really bad tonight.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
