The Golden State Warriors delivered a major blow to the table this Wednesday by beating the Sacramento Kings (116-123) at home, giving them an opportunity to close their qualification for the Western Semifinals (2-3) on Friday.
Stephen Curry (31 points and 8 assists) was the beacon of a very focused, serious and complete Warriors on all fronts.
Thus, the great collective work of the current NBA champions (33 assists from the whole team for 50 baskets) was also supported by Klay Thompson (25 points), Andrew Wiggins (20 points) and most importantly a Draymond Green multitasking and enormously effective from the bench (21 points and 7 assists) and another giant Kevon Looney in the paint (22 rebounds, 7 of which were offensive, as well as 7 assists).
The win in Sacramento for Steve Kerr’s team is especially valuable as they were a painful team away from home (11-30) in the regular season but very solid in San Francisco (33-8).
For the Kings, De’Aaron Fox, in his first game since breaking his left index finger, played with a splint to protect his injured finger and scored 24 points (9-of-25 shooting, 3-of-10 3-pointers). 7-for-10 rebounds and 9 assists.
Malik Monk and Domantas Sabonis added 21 points per head in a Kings now forced to win two games in a row and tonight started miraculously in the triple (8 of 12) and crashed in the last three quarters (2 of 22) .
THE MAGNIFYING GLASS ON FOX
There was a lot of anticipation to see how his issues with his left index finger would affect Fox, especially shooting as he is left-handed, but the point guard quickly dispelled any doubts.
With an impressive 3-for-3 3-point run, Fox made it clear to the Warriors that he would continue to be a formidable threat on their home offense.
Rookie Keegan Murray added 10 points for the locals and Sacramento showed fine shots from the perimeter in the first quarter with a great 8-of-12 on 3-pointers, but the Warriors weren’t far behind and with Wiggins leading (8 points ) reached the second period without losing too much ground (36-33).
Curry didn’t have a particularly brilliant first half (12 points with 3 lost possessions) but Thompson, his inseparable teammate from the “Splash Brothers”, ignited before the break.
With three consecutive triples, the forward led 0-12 to turn the game around for Golden State.
Thompson landed at halftime with 16 points -and three fouls-, Green did a little bit of everything and everything added up (11 points and 4 rebounds) and Kevon Looney put his boots under the hoops (10 rebounds) for a Warriors they marched to the locker room with an advantage (56-60) against some Kings who suddenly ran out of magic from the triple (0 of 9 in the second quarter).
Thompson’s offense early in the third period sounded the alarm in Golden State.
To the rescue came Curry with 9 points, an ubiquitous Green on both sides of the court, and a Looney who only grabbed 8 rebounds (4 of them offensive) in that quarter.
In addition, the local nightmare in the triples continued in that period (1 of 7), Fox was about to go to the street on a double technique and the Kings were forced to come back in the last quarter (90-99).
A Curry layup gave the visitors a +12 with 9 minutes remaining, which looked to make the game very difficult for Sacramento.
But then a glowing Monk version emerged, who would draw 14 points in the final 12 minutes and bring his team just one point with a world lead (106-107 with 5.46 to go).
With the two teams unable to take the lead in a very tight denouement, Monk and Fox missed two three-pointers in the final two minutes for the Kings as Wiggins faded and Curry hit a crucial two plus one with only one left . the victory of the warriors.
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
