San Francisco – The Warriors looked to be back on track after last night’s win. But Harrison Barnes had the hot hand tonight, and no one could stop him. The Sacramento Kings 134-133 win over Golden State was a tough one to swallow. The Warriors had one last chance for the win, but Stephen Curry turned the ball over with 15 seconds left on the clock.
“This is one that keeps you up at night,” said Steve Kerr on the final possession. “I thought maybe we were going to get Draymond on the roll with the spacing on either side and get a good shot because they doubled Steph. But he just couldn’t get it to Draymond in that situation. They did a good job of doubling him.
Then when the plays over you’re like ‘yeah, could have taken a timeout’. It’s always a difficult decision down the stretch.”
Curry admitted he soul of taken a timeout on that play. “The chaos of the moment you’re trying to make a play,” he explained. “Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Where Golden State stands right now, the less mistakes the better. Their biggest problem is defense which is obvious every game. But at some point, taking the blame or admitting to fault must be secondary. This wasn’t a game for the Warriors to lose. The Warriors recorded a season-low 33 rebounds.
Despite a great game from both Jonathan Kuminga and Curry their defensive efforts fell flat. Kuminga tallied a career-high 31 points. Prior to Kuminga’s effort tonight, the last time a Warriors player scored at least 30 points off the bench was Jordan Poole (33 points on 3/24/23 vs. PHI). Curry’s team-high 33 points, is his 16th 30-point game of the season (Warriors 11-5 in those games).
Curry also grabbed five defensive rebounds to give him 3,734, passing Larry Smith (3,731) to move into second place on the Warriors’ all-time defensive rebounds list (Draymond Green is first with 4,538). Draymond Green dished out 11 assists, marking his second game with double figure assists on the season. He also had a season-high-tying three steals (11/5 at CLE).
“He changes our defense for sure,” said Kerr on Green’s defense. “When he’s out there he’s causing havoc and guarding pick-and-roll. He’s a dominant defensive player and obviously we need that desperately. Our defense the last few weeks has really struggled. It’s great to have him back.”
“The fire that he brings, the energy that he has,” Kuminga said on Green’s return. “The energy that no one out there can match. If you have one guy like that on the floor, everyone might as well, match up that energy. Him just being there, his presence, brings a lot of energy to everyone on the team. It makes us roll. I am really happy to see him back playing at the highest level. He is bringing us energy. He was supposed to start but he doesn’t mind coming off the bench and still being who he has been, every single day. That is what we need from pretty much everyone else.”
“The one thing about Draymond is he’s going to make everyone around him better,” said Andrew Wiggins. “He helps the flow of the game, helps find guys, gets guys easy baskets, gets everyone in rhythm. He’s a big part for sure.”
Up Next: The Warriors host the Lakers on Saturday, January 27 at 5:30 p.m. PST.
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