SACRAMENTO — The Warriors are a .500 team, and they played a .500 game.
As excellent as the Warriors played in the first half, when the 3s were flowing and the defense held Sacramento to 39% shooting, they stumbled just as hard in the second half.
Golden State led by as much as 18, but hellacious ball pressure and trick defensive schemes from Sacramento in the third quarter sped them up to the point where they threw the ball around recklessly. The Warriors allowed 75 second-half points and scored just four points in the last four minutes of the game.
The Kings trapped the ball out of Steph Curry’s hands all night — often at halfcourt — and he responded by dishing a season-high 12 assists. Andrew Wiggins poured in 25 and Gui Santos (16 points) provided a major lift off the bench. But DeMar DeRozan (32 points, 24 in the second half) was too much for the short-handed Warriors to overcome.
In the early stages of a “make-or-break” stretch of games before the Feb. 6 trade deadline, what looked like a promising night for Golden State (21-22) ended with “Light The Beam” chants and a 123-117 loss. The Warriors committed 19 turnovers, negating a hot shooting night.
“We’ve got to be able to maintain that level of poise and execution, especially on the road against a really good team,” Steve Kerr said postgame. “You got to understand: there has to be purpose to the game. Too many just careless passes and careless possessions. Like, ‘No, that doesn’t win in the NBA on the road. That does not win.’ We’ve got to understand what wins.”
Kerr moved some puzzle pieces around, removing Dennis Schroder and Trayce Jackson-Davis from the starting lineup and replacing them with Buddy Hield and Kevon Looney. He tried to make lineup choices to “jumpstart” Golden State’s offense that ranks 26th since December.
Not only did Kerr shake up the starting lineup, he dug deep into his bench. Rookie Quinten Post started the second quarter to add spacing and Gui Santos checked in shortly after him as the 11th Warrior to touch the court. The plan all along was to play Post for his floor-spacing element, even before Looney got ruled out for the second half with an illness.
“Just the way the league is going, having space, having as many shooters as possible at whatever position — the five definitely helps,” Curry said. “You have a counter to aggressive defenses trying to take the ball out of my hands. It should help Dennis a little bit too in pick-and-roll type situations. You’ve got to make the defense decide are they going to pull in or stay home?”
Any choices are impermanent given the Warriors’ injury report. Draymond Green and Jonathan Kuminga will miss at least another week or two, while Brandin Podziemski and Kyle Anderson could return from absences Thursday against the Bulls but watched in street clothes in Golden 1 Center.
Any coaching decisions look great when shots fall. Moses Moody drained his first two 3-pointers, Hield buried a pair and Andrew Wiggins sank three early triples — including a four-point play. Santos joined the barrage with three of his own. Golden State started 12-for-21 from behind the arc.
The 3-point onslaught opened up the lane for Golden State. Curry found Santos on a cut for his fifth assist and threw a slick dime in the pick-and-roll to Jackson-Davis for an and-1 reverse layup.
Curry added a banked floater and a ridiculous teardrop off a euro step. Golden State closed the first half on a 35-19 extended run that included a comical Malik Monk missed breakaway dunk that appeared to hit his head and pop back up through the cylinder.
Sacramento swung the momentum back in their direction with a 37-20 third quarter. Warriors turnovers kickstarted the Kings’ transition offense that Golden State had bottled up earlier. The Golden 1 Center, silenced in the first half, became a factor.
The 3s stopped falling, renewed ball pressure from the Kings forced eight turnovers, Kerr got a technical when he argued for a kickball and by the end of the quarter, Sacramento tied the game.
DeRozan scored 19 points on perfect shooting in the quarter, swinging the game. Many of those same decisions Kerr made didn’t look as genius as Golden State’s jumpers clanked and Sacramento turned the game into a track meet. The talent speaks the loudest truths.
Four 3-pointers in a quick burst — from Moody, Post and Hield — put the Warriors back up seven early in the fourth quarter. But the Kings responded with an 8-0 run in 90 seconds.
Golden State’s bench erupted when Santos swished his fourth 3 of the game to put the Warriors back on top.
Santos and Post closed the game in the frontcourt as the lead swung back and forth. Curry, who rarely had an inch to breath because of Sacramento’s traps and zone defense, misfired on a deep try with 90 seconds left, leading to foul shots on the other end to give Sacramento a two-possession edge.
Then Fox, who had an otherwise dreadful night, brought the crowd to its feet with a 20-foot jumper. The Kings had closers, while the Warriors’ closer got double and triple-teamed.
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Source: www.mercurynews.com