The Sacramento Kings took on the Golden State Warriors in their 3rd game of the preseason, falling 122-94.
In the NBA’s first game back in Seattle’s Key Arena since 2009, the Harry Giles-led Sacramento Kings were blown out by former SuperSonic Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors by 28 points.
All the positives from the Sacramento Kings first two preseason games quickly went out the window, as the Kings never really got going on either end of the court. The quicker pace that Sacramento played with in their first two games all but vanished against the Warriors.
The Warriors were without three starters in Draymond Green, DeMarcus Cousins *shudders* and Steph Curry, yet the Kings were still no match for duo of Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson.
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After one-quarter, Thompson alone had 19 points on 7-10 shooting in about nine minutes of action, putting Sacramento in an early 39-18 hole. The Kings shot 27 percent in the quarter.
The Kings ended the half with much of the same, no ability to score, an inexplicable desire to run iso in the half-court and turnovers. Lots and lots of turnovers, 15 to be exact.
After two quarters, the Kings were down by 30, 74-44, and Durant (17p) and Thompson (25p) combined for nearly as many points as the Kings scored with 42.
The 3rd and 4th quarters brought about no changes, with the Kings falling behind by 36 at one point in the 3rd before
rallying
clawing their way to down 31 at the end of three.
Thompson (33p) and Durant (26p) ended with a combined 59 points, more than all Kings starters (42p) combined. The majority of Sacramento’s players struggled with De’Aaron Fox going for seven points, four rebounds and four assists on just 3-10 shooting, Buddy Hield putting up seven points, six rebounds and three assists on 3-11 shooting and Marvin Bagley III nearing another double-double (10p, 9r) albeit in just 40% shooting.
Not all was bad, however, as the trio of Frank Mason III, Ben McLemore and Harry Giles are performing well in limited minutes. Giles played 20 minutes, out was able to pour in 17 points and grab six rebounds on 6-14 shooting and 1-1 on threes. Mason only played eight minutes, but made the most of them scoring 10 points and dishing out six assists on 3-5 shooting while McLemore had seven points and three rebounds in just four minutes of play.
All in all, this was one to forget for Sacramento Kings fans. While the Harry Giles hype-train continues to chug along nicely, nearly everyone else got left behind at the station. It’s hard to draw too many conclusions from just one game, especially after Sacramento played reasonably well in their first two exhibitions.
At the very least, NBA fans were treated to a seriously cool moment when former Seattle SuperSonics Rookie of the Year Kevin Durant came out to raucous, sell-out crowd at Key Arena in a retro Shawn Kemp SuperSonics jersey. Seriously, if you haven’t seen it by now take a few seconds to watch it here.