|
 Eighty-one more contests like the opener will make coach Steve
Kerr and guard Stephen Curry happy men.
Curry scored a game-high 24 points and Kerr earned a victory in his
NBA coaching debut Wednesday. However, both saved the superlatives
for others after the Warriors used a decisive second-half run to rip
the Sacramento Kings 95-77 at Sleep Train Arena in the season opener
for both teams.
Seven Warriors scored during a 22-4 third-quarter blitz that turned
Golden State's 54-51 deficit into a 73-58 lead during a 6:03 span of
the third quarter. That was plenty to ruin the Kings' 30th season
opener in Sacramento.
"That's how it's gonna have to be all year," Curry said. "Different
guys stepping up at different positions and different moments."
Guard Klay Thompson finished with 19 points, forward Mo Speights had
16, forward Draymond Green added 12, and the Warriors won their
third consecutive season opener. Golden State is coming off
consecutive playoff appearances for the first time since the start
of the 1992-93 campaign.
 The Warriors were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs last
season by the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 7, a year after reaching
the Western Conference semifinals and losing to the San Antonio
Spurs. Golden State hasn't reached the Western Conference finals
since 1975-76.
Wednesday's effort also made a winner out of Kerr, one of 16 players
to win five championships as a player. He was coaching an NBA game
for the first time.
"Now I know why (Bulls coach) Tom Thibodeau talks like this," Kerr
said.
DeMarcus Cousins scored 20 points to lead Sacramento, which is
coming off consecutive 28-54 campaigns. The Kings center made just
four of 14 shots from the field but got to the free-throw line 18
times. He also had a game-high 11 rebounds.
Kings forward Rudy Gay added 14 points, and guard Darren Collison
added 13 in his Sacramento debut, but the Kings had a 13-game
winning streak in home season openers snapped. Sacramento turned
over the ball 27 times, its most since a road loss to the Minnesota
Timberwolves on March 19, 2006, and its most in a home game since
Nov. 5, 1996, against the Houston Rockets.
"You're not going to beat anybody, especially not one of the top
teams in the Western Conference (with that many turnovers)," Kings
coach Michael Malone said. "Offensively, it was a disappointing
effort."
The Kings had only one player -- Collison -- with more than one
assist, and they shot just 30.8 percent from the field.
"We're going to watch film (Thursday) to show the over-dribbling,
the hold, the lack of ball movement and the unwillingess to move the
ball," Malone said.
Sacramento took a 49-47 lead into halftime despite shooting just 31
percent from the field, and the Kings led 54-51 with 6:56 left in
the third quarter after Gay converted Collision's steal into a dunk.
[to top of second column] |
Curry, Green, Thompson, Speights, forward Harrison Barnes and guards
Andre Iguodala and Leandro Barbosa all scored over the next six
minutes as Golden State used a smaller lineup to push the tempo.
"We went to that lineup to look for pace," Kerr said. "That's the
beauty of this roster. To have this much versatility and depth is
amazing. And everybody contributed."
Speights was particularly spry, adding five rebounds and two assists
to his 8-for-13 shooting night.
"I just felt like we were able to get out and defend and get out in
transition," Speights said. "We've been running hard in practice.
Harder than what turned out in the game."
The momentum continued into the final quarter, when the Warriors
used a 14-6 surge to put the game away after Sacramento reduced the
lead to 78-69 with 6:53 left.
"It's early," Gay said. "Guys are trying to do things and trying to
be productive."
Cousins, who last season became only the fourth Kings player to
average at least 22 points and 11 rebounds per game, started slowly.
He made only one of nine from the field but scored 12 points in the
first half. He also made it through the opener without a technical
foul; he tied for the NBA lead last year with 16.
The Warriors shot 44 percent from the field on the night, while the
Kings finished at 30.8 percent.
NOTES: Steve Kerr is the 25th coach in Warriors history and the
team's 20th since relocating from Philadelphia in 1962. ... Kings C
DeMarcus Cousins entered the season with 33 technical fouls in the
past two seasons, the most in the NBA. He never has had fewer than
12 in a season (2011-12). He picked up technical fouls in two of the
first three exhibition games but none in the final four. ... G
Stephen Curry started his sixth straight opener for the Warriors,
joining Jeff Mullins (1967-73), Rick Barry (1972-77), Chris Mullin
(1986-92) and Latrell Sprewell (1992-97) as the only players in the
team's West Coast history to do so. ... As expected, Kings F Rudy
Gay played, three days after taking an elbow to the jaw in the
team's exhibition finale Sunday. ... Cousins and F Jason Thompson
are the only two Kings left since GM Pete D'Alessandro took over on
June 17, 2013.
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
