Kings-Warriors Preview
Despite the ugly state Sacramento was in three weeks ago, the nine-point home loss it had against Golden State is looking better ever day. The Warriors are beating teams by roughly as many points as their second-leading scorer is putting up, and he finished 12th in the MVP vote last season.
The Kings have since recovered some, but it'll take a whole lot more to be the ones to end the Warriors' NBA-record start. That's particularly true since things are moving from the capital to the bay this time around and it's more likely to be Sacramento which is handicapped a key player even if it seems on paper the Warriors could spare Klay Thompson the trouble.
The teams meet for a second time Saturday night with the Warriors eying 18-0 as well as a 10th straight victory in the series.
The Warriors (17-0) have swept the last two season series with their closest NBA neighbor and started this one with a 103-94 win on Nov. 7. The nine straight wins have come by an average of 16.9 points, and the four played in Oakland have been by 22.2.
But those aren't necessarily numbers to be ashamed of against this season's team. The single-digit loss was one of five the league has against the Warriors thus far and one Phoenix would likely welcome after Golden State thudded them 135-116 Friday.
Golden State went 22 of 38 from 3-point range - establishing yet another franchise record and falling one shy of the NBA record for single-game 3s - and cruised despite committing a season-high 24 turnovers.
"We have an edge," Steph Curry said. "We love the feeling of winning and our confidence is high right now. That's the only thing that motivates us."
Calling it merely an edge might be underselling it. The Warriors are 100-20 since the start of last season including the postseason, and no other team has yet reached 80 in that time. The dominance they're showing this season points toward the disparity only growing. Their wins this season are coming by an average of 15.8 points per game and 17.5 at home. Thompson is averaging 16.1 and 15.8 at home.
Thompson hasn't scored or shot as much this season, likely in part because of his star teammate. Curry had 41 points on 11-of-20 shooting and 9 of 16 from 3-point range with eight assists, and the reigning MVP needed just 31 minutes to do so. It was already his fifth game of at least 40 points, which is something he entered the season having done nine times. The rest of the NBA has done it 14 times this season, among them Sacramento's DeMarcus Cousins - just not recently.
Cousins has missed two games with a lower-back strain, including Friday's 101-91 home loss to Minnesota, as the Kings fell to 1-6 without him. Even so, the Kings (6-11) have won five of nine since a 1-7 start that had Cousins screaming at coach George Karl.
Against the Timberwolves, it didn't help that Rudy Gay had his worst game of the season, scoring a season-low two points on 1-of-13 shooting. It gets worse: It was Gay's fewest points since he was shut out on Jan. 23 - by Golden State. It gets worse: Thompson had 52 that night.
Over the winning streak in the series, the shooting guard has scored 24.7 points and shot 53.1 percent while hitting 51.5 percent from 3-point range, so it might be his turn for a night in the spotlight considering Curry's pedestrian 19.7 points in the same span.
And then there's Sacramento's recent form on the defensive end. The Kings have allowed their last three opponents to score 115.3 per game on 48.7 percent.
"I felt like we had no sense of urgency defensively," Omri Casspi said of the Timberwolves. "They got whatever they wanted and we couldn't get stops."
That's how they felt about Minnesota - a .500 team that went 16-66 last season. Here come the defending NBA champions, looking to go 18-0.