Kings Can’t Hang with Hot Warriors
By Nick Avila
The Sacramento Kings were able to hang with the Golden State Warriors for about the first half, but it was all Dubs after that as Sacramento (12-16) fell to the Warriors (23-3) 128-108. DeMarcus Cousins finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and six assists and Omri Casspi had 16 points and eight rebounds off the bench.
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Darren Collison finished with 17 points and Rudy Gay had a rough night, dropping 13 points on 4-14 shooting. Golden State’s bench outscored the Kings’ bench 62-39, as 13 Warriors got on the score board tonight.
The Kings scored the first bucket of the game and suddenly, in a flash, the Warriors had a 9-2 lead. That’s just the way the Warriors have seemed to play this year, torching opponents with their uptempo play and tough team defense. The Kings tied the game at 11 and took the lead on a Cousins free throw, but by the end of the first quarter the Kings would trail the Dubs, 36-20. Golden State finished the period with a 19-2 run.
Cousins made his presence felt in the second quarter, starting it with six straight points and Casspi, in his return from a knee contusion, added a pair of buckets. But, halfway through the quarter the Kings still trailed by 15 after a Klay Thompson trey.
A three-pointer from Gay cut the Warriors lead to under 10 for the first time since the first period, with two minutes to play in the second. However, by halftime the Warriors were back up by 14, leading 64-50.
Cousins had 13 points and five boards at the break and Gay had 11 points and six rebounds. For the Warriors, the Splash brothers each finished the half with 12 points. The Kings had 10 turnovers and the Warriors weren’t much better with nine, but the Warriors out-assisted the Kings 21 to 13.
In the third quarter, the Warriors took over, extending their lead to 23 with eight minutes left, and though the Kings worked hard to cut the lead to 11, they couldn’t get it any closer than that, and the Warriors ended the quarter up 93-76. Ray McCallum beat the buzzer for the last basket of the third.
There would be no comeback from the Kings on this night as the Warriors put the game away quickly with a 7-1 run to start the quarter that amounted to a 100-77 lead. From there it was smooth sailing for Golden State.
The Kings take on the Phoenix Suns on Friday when they come back from a three-day break.