This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Sacramento Kings. The Warriors took a commanding 63-42 lead into the second half.
3RD QUARTER: Bogut And Speights Both Pick Up 4th Personals
Golden State started the second half strong but it didn’t last long. Stephen Curry got his third steal of the game and fed to Draymond Green, who narrowly missed an and-one on the ensuing layup:
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Green converted on an offensive rebound after a missed three by Curry, Harrison Barnes drilled a triple from downtown on the right elbow after Andrew Bogut rolled to the hoop and found Barnes as the Kings defense collapsed on Bogut, but after another three-pointer by Klay Thompson to make it 72-52 Warriors, Bogut picked up his fourth personal foul and the Warriors lost their momentum.
More momentum was lost when Omar Casspi found himself on a fastbreak and, looking to attack, saw Curry step up to take a charge, took an extra step, drew the foul, and converted the layup. Curry protested for a traveling call and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was livid. Kerr picked up a technical, but Casspi missed his and-one free throw.
Marreese Speights got an alley oop lob from Curry out of a timeout, as DeMarcus Cousins fell asleep on the play, but then Cousins started to wear on the Warriors defense and scored seven straight points for the Kings as Speights picked up his fourth personal, forcing Kerr to go with Festus Ezeli off the bench with 3:14 to play and the Golden State lead trimmed to 85-70.
Sacramento cut the lead to 11 points twice as Ben McLemore exploded for a slam dunk and Darren Collison made a jumper, but Curry answered that with a three-pointer and the Dubs took a 14-point lead at 94-80 into the final frame, although the Kings had changed the flow of the game.
Curry had 23 points, 4 assists and Green had 4 steals while Klay added 14 points. The Kings were led by Cousins with 18 points, 10 rebounds and Rudy Gay with 20 points.
4TH QUARTER: Bench Unit Alive!
As they did in the second quarter, the bench unit did their job again as David Lee blocked a Casspi jumper, leading to a Leandro Barbosa run-out against Cousins. However, Cousins blocked Barbosa, but Speights kept running on the trail and got the easy putback.
The Warriors got four offensive rebounds in a row and, at the 8:44 mark, the mandatory timeout was called and the bench unit had held serve, 101-86. Out of the timeout, Kerr went with Shaun Livingston in the post against the smaller Ray McCallum, and Livingston made a turnaround on McCallum plus the harm.
Andre Iguodala continued his hot shooting, drilling a three-pointer from the right elbow after Barbosa took a swing pass from Lee and drove hard into the paint with the left-handed dribble. That gave Iguodala two treys on three attempts and 6-for-8 overall from the floor.
On the ensuing possession, Iguodala deflected an entry pass from Gay and raced up the court, getting fouled by Gay and Iguodala finally made both free throws.
At the 4:41 mark with the Warriors up, 115-88, Speights fouled out and Ezeli was put back in. Ognjen Kuzmic and James Michael McAdoo, who signed his second 10-day contract with the Warriors, were put on the inactive list for this game by Kerr.
With 2:24 remaining and Golden State up handily, 117-93, Kerr inserted Justin Holiday, who had slipped a notch in the depth chart due to Barbosa’s excellent play, and the Warriors closed things out with a final score of 121-96.
Apparently, there were #LetsGoWarriors chants at SleepTrain Arena:
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With Curry’s 23 points and Thompson’s 14, Iguodala added 17 off the bench, plus Speights had 17 points, 8 rebounds and Barbosa had 12 points, 5 assists, while Livingston added 5 assists. The bench unit outscored that of the Kings by an astouding 61-12 clip, and the Warriors starters, obviously, 61-60! The Warriors also out-rebounded the Kings, 49-34, and assisted on 33 of their 45 field goals made.
Curry led all Warriors with 28 minutes. Next highest was Iguodala and Green with 24. Klay played 23.
The Kings were top-heavy in their production, with Cousins tallying 26, Gay 20, McLemore 18, and Collison 18, but the entire rest of the Kings team only scored 14 points.
Golden State went back up to 30 games over .500 at 38-8 and swept Sacramento 4-0 on the season series.
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