Game Recap: Sacramento Kings Fall Short To The Golden State Warriors
By Rafe Wong
Despite Rajon Rondo’s triple double (14 points/12 rebounds/15 assists), the Sacramento Kings fall to 1-6 with a loss to the Golden State Warriors tonight 103-94 .
Probably to many people’s surprise, the game was competitive. Without DeMarcus Cousins and Darren Collison, I thought there was little chance that the Kings would even be relevant in this match, but somehow they remained in the game throughout all four quarters. Other notable Kings that played well tonight were Marco Belinelli with 22 points and Rudy Gay with 22 points and 7 rebounds.
From this game I saw both positives and negatives from the Kings’ outing tonight.
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The negatives were that the Kings continued to turn the ball over at a high rate. The Kings finished the game with 22 turnovers, which resulted in the Warriors scoring 20 points off those Sacramento turnovers.
Another negative to take away from tonight was the lack of perimeter shooting. Although Belinelli found his stroke tonight, the Kings overall struggled shooting beyond the arc with a percentage of 31.6% (6/19).
Positives to take from this game was that the ball movement for the Kings was exceptional. The Kings, lead by Rondo, were able to find some rhythm on the offensive end, which resulted in the team finishing by recording 26 assists for the night.
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Another bright spot to take away from tonight’s game was how the Kings were able to hold their own against the Warriors on the defensive end. For the past few games, especially without Cousins, the defense for Sacramento has been lethargic, but tonight they were able to at least contain the Warriors high powered offense, especially in limiting Stephen Curry to shooting only 8/18 (4/11 for three).
Overall, when I found out that Collison would join Cousins on the inactive list for tonight’s game, I was thinking Sacramento was going to get blown out on their home court. Fortunately for fans that were at the game and watching it on TV, the Kings made it at least exciting to the very end.
Next: Kings Need Their Boogie Back
Next matchup for Sacramento will be against the San Antonio Spurs (likely another playoff contending team) on Monday. If the Kings can replicate the way they played defense tonight, plus having Rondo running the offense the way he did, we could be seeing another Kings game that will be determined in the final minutes.