NBA scores: Steph Curry’s Warriors blow lead, lose to Kings

For a long time Wednesday night, it looked like the Golden State Warriors had put Monday’s embarrassing loss behind them Boston Celtics far in hindsight. Despite playing on the road in a hostile environment, against a red-hot Sacramento Kings team, and despite missing probably two of their three best players (Draymond Green and Jonathan Kuminga), plus two key bench pieces (Brandin Podziemski and Kyle Anderson), the Warriors put together a pretty dominant first half.

A new starting lineup (Steph Curry, Gary Payton II, Buddy Hield, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney) took some time to find a rhythm, but then figured it out. The Warriors went on an early 8-0 run to take a 16-9 lead with impeccable ball movement and a game that turned fast just the way they wanted it to. The offense stalled late in the quarter after Curry took a rest, and they shot just 9-for-23 from the field. But all nine of those field goals were assisted, and six of the nine were threes (two each by Wiggins and Moses Moody), and the Warriors led 24-20 after one.

Sacramento responded to start the second quarter, opening with a 6-0 run to take the lead. But Wiggins had an answer, responding with a 6-0 run of his own. A Gui Santos three – his first of three of the quarter – capped a 15-3 run that gave Golden State a 39-29 lead.

From there, the Warriors defense ran things. They were feisty, aggressive and disruptive, turning defense into attack. This, in turn, led to some great attacks and all possible energy from top to bottom in the line-up. Curry finished it all by “going into mixtape mode,” as broadcaster Mark Jones described it, and the lead ballooned to 18 points with about a minute left. The Kings cut it to 14, but a hield-obscuring three made it a 65-48 halftime lead, a 41-point quarter and about as good a performance as you could hope for given the circumstances.

And then it crashed.

The short-handed Warriors were dealt a blow at halftime with the announcement that Looney had become ill and would not return. The Warriors attacked the basket, but the Kings had visible life, with DeMar DeRozan making shot after shot after shot. They chipped away and chipped away and finally the Warriors cut the lead to single digits with about two and a half minutes left. That seemed to break Golden State’s spirit as Sacramento rode the momentum. The Warriors got sloppy, DeRozan kept attacking (he had 19 points in the frame), and the Kings erased the entire deficit. We were left tied 85-85 at the end of the quarter, and a 12-minute game ahead of us.

The Kings scored first in the fourth quarter to take their first lead since the first. But then rookie Quinten Post — getting serious minutes thanks to injuries — responded with a layup and a three. After Sacramento regained the lead at 92-90, the game began with runs. Golden State scored nine straight points, capped by back-to-back Hield threes, forcing a Sacramento timeout as the Dubs led by seven.

The timeout did the trick as the Kings immediately rattled off a 13-0 run of their own to take a six-point lead. Not to be outdone, Wiggins, Santos and the Warriors responded with an 8-0 run, all with Curry on the bench. When Curry returned at the 4:39 mark, the Dubs led by a single point.

The lead was then four with four minutes remaining as the offense died and could not be revived. The runs continued, this time with Sacramento scoring 10 unanswered. The Warriors thought they were finally breaking through when Moody was fouled by Domantas Sabonis while attempting a three with 50.6 seconds left and the Warriors down by six, but his chance to make it a one-possession game was lost, when the Kings challenged and the call was overturned. . The Warriors would win the ensuing jump ball and Curry would make a layup to cut the deficit to four points with 40 seconds left, but they had no answer on the defensive end. Sacramento’s comeback was complete, with the Kings winning 123-117.

It was a deflating result, but an impressive effort considering the Kings were at full strength and the Warriors were so fired up that Santos and Post — two players on the outside of the team’s comically large rotation when the year began — combined for more than 37 minutes of action. It was also a well-rounded effort, with six Warriors scoring in double figures: Wiggins (25), Hield (17), Santos (16), Curry (14), Moody (11) and Trayce Jackson-Davis (11).

But the Kings managed to force the Warriors into the two things that have doomed them all season: turnovers and not having another scorer. The Dubs committed a painful 19 turnovers on the night, and while Curry showed some magic and had a season-high 12 assists, the Kings held him to just 11 field goal attempts all night and just 1-for-4 shooting from deep.

The loss drops the Warriors back below .500, but there’s no time to dwell: they’re back at home Thursday night to host the Chicago Bulls at 19:00 PT.