Sacramento Kings’ Youth Shine, But Lose To Warriors In Finale
By Rafe Wong
The Sacramento Kings ended their preseason campaign tonight against the Golden State Warriors. Scroll down below to check out how the purple and white fared in tonight’s contest.
The Sacramento Kings dropped to a record of 1-5 for their preseason campaign as they lost to the Golden State Warriors by a score of 117-106. Listed down below are some notes to take away from the game.
Dave Joerger’s Approach
In order to give the veterans on his team rest, Dave Joerger opted to play only his young players for tonight. As a result, he began the game with a starting five of Frank Mason III, Buddy Hield, Justin Jackson, Skal Labissiere, and Willie Cauley-Stein.
Although Sacramento lost tonight, some of their players were able to showcase solid performances which should have Kings fans excited about the team’s future. Here are those players!
Player of the Game
David Stockton, who signed with the Kings earlier this week, proved tonight why Sacramento keeps asking the former Gonzaga Bulldog to come back. In the match, Stockton was the Kings’ best player as he recorded 23 points and 8 assists, showing the Kings and the NBA how he can fare as a facilitator.
Frank the Bulldog
Another player that shined for the Kings was Frank Mason III. On a mission to prove the haters wrong, Mason continues to be an offensive light for his team as he recorded 10 points and 3 assists in just 18 minutes of play. Throughout the entire preseason, Mason keeps making a case for Joerger to give him meaningful minutes for the upcoming season. But will we see Mason on the court throughout the year?
The Unexpected
Two more players that excelled for Sacramento were Malachi Richardson and Georgios Papagiannis. Both players have been fairly quiet for the last couple of weeks, but they were able to make huge splashes to end the preseason.
For the game, Richardson scored 15 points as his midrange jumper was on point throughout the entire night. For Papagiannis, he was able to score 13 points while notching 7 rebounds for the game, showing signs of growth.
Final Thoughts
The Kings’ record was horrible for this year’s preseason, but with that being said, the team showed a lot of excitement from their youth which should create optimism for the team’s fanbase.
The next time the Kings hit the hardwood will be next Wednesday at the Golden 1 Center when the Kings open up their regular season against the Houston Rockets.
The new era of proud is just days away from us!