Another late-game collapse.
For a long time on Wednesday night, it looked like the Golden State Warriors had put Monday’s embarrassing loss to the Boston Celtics far in the rearview mirror. Despite playing on the road in a hostile environment, against a red-hot Sacramento Kings team, and despite missing arguably two of their three best players (Draymond Green and Jonathan Kuminga), plus two key bench pieces (Brandin Podziemski and Kyle Anderson), the Warriors put together a fairly dominant first half.
A new starting lineup (Steph Curry, Gary Payton II, Buddy Hield, Andrew Wiggins, and Kevon Looney) took a bit of time to find a rhythm, but then figured it out. The Warriors went on an early 8-0 run to take a 16-9 lead, with impeccable ball movement and a game that was getting fast, just as they wanted. The offense stalled out late in the quarter after Curry took a rest, and they shot just 9-for-23 from the field. But all nine of those field goals were assisted on, and six of the nine were threes (two each by Wiggins and Moses Moody), and the Warriors led 24-20 after one.
Sacramento responded to start the second quarter, opening up with a 6-0 run to take the lead. But Wiggins had an answer, responding with a 6-0 run of his own. A Gui Santos three — his first of three in the quarter — capped a 15-3 run, giving Golden State a 39-29 lead.
From there, the Warriors defense ran things. They were feisty, aggressive, and disruptive, and turned defense into offense. That, in turn, led to some gorgeous offense, and all sorts of energy from top to bottom in the lineup. Curry capped it all by “going mixtape mode,” as broadcaster Mark Jones described it, and the lead ballooned to 18 points with about a minute remaining. The Kings cut it to 14, but a Hield buzzer-beating three made it a 65-48 halftime lead, a 41-point quarter, and about as good of a performance as you could hope for given the circumstances.
And then it came crashing down.
The short-handed Warriors were dealt a blow at halftime, with the announcement that Looney had fallen ill and would not return. The Warriors were attacking the basket, but the Kings had visible life, with DeMar DeRozan making shot after shot after shot. They chipped away and chipped away, finally cutting the Warriors lead to single digits with about two-and-a-half minutes left. That seemed to break Golden State’s spirit, as Sacramento ran with the momentum. The Warriors got sloppy, DeRozan kept attacking (he had 19 points in the frame), and the Kings erased the entire deficit. We were left with an 85-85 tie at the end of the quarter, and a 12-minute game ahead of us.
The Kings scored first in the fourth quarter to take their first lead since the first. But then rookie Quinten Post — getting serious minutes thanks to the injuries — responded with a layup and a three. After Sacramento retook the lead at 92-90, the game of runs began. Golden State scored nine straight points, capped by back-to-back Hield threes, forcing a Sacramento timeout as the Dubs led by seven.
The timeout did the trick, as the Kings immediately rattled off a 13-0 run of their own to take a six-point lead. Not to be outdone, Wiggins, Santos, and the Warriors responded with an 8-0 run, all with Curry on the bench. When Curry returned at the 4:39 mark, the Dubs led by a single point.
The lead was then four with four minutes remaining when the offense died and could not be revitalized. The runs continued, this time with Sacramento scoring 10 unanswered. The Warriors thought they finally broke through when Moody was fouled by Domantas Sabonis while attempting a three with 50.6 seconds remaining and the Warriors down six, but his chance to make it a single-possession game was lost when the Kings challenged and the call was overturned. The Warriors would win the ensuing jump ball and Curry would make a layup to cut the deficit to four points with 40 seconds remaining, but they had no answers on the defensive side. Sacramento’s comeback was complete, with the Kings winning 123-117.
It was a deflating result, but an impressive effort considering the Kings were at full strength and the Warriors were so banged up that Santos and Post — two players on the outside of the team’s comically-large rotation when the year began — combined for more than 37 minutes of action. It was also a well-rounded effort, with six Warriors scoring in double figures: Wiggins (25), Hield (17), Santos (16), Curry (14), Moody (11), and Trayce Jackson-Davis (11).
But the Kings managed to force the Warriors into the two things that have doomed them all season: turnovers, and not having a second scorer. The Dubs committed a painful 19 turnovers on the night, and while Curry showed some magic and had a season-high 12 assists, the Kings held him to just 11 field goal attempts all night, and just 1-for-4 shooting from deep.
With the loss, the Warriors fall back below .500, but there’s no time to dwell: they’re back at home Thursday night to host the Chicago Bulls at 7:00 p.m. PT.