SACRAMENTO – Draymond Green was a late scratch due to illness. That left the already short-handed Warriors without their best ball-handler and defender. De’Aaron Fox scored a career-high 44 points to lead the Sacramento Kings to a 141-119 victory over Golden State tonight.
“Draymond did not come to shootaround and is not feeling well at all right now,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said before the game.”
Already missing Stephen Curry, Golden State did not have trouble scoring against the Kings with five guys finishing in double figures led by Andrew Wiggins 26 points who shot 10-of-18 from the floor and scored 20 points in the first half.
Kelly Oubre Jr. finished with 19 points on 8-of-17 shooting. Jordan Poole had 17 points and led the Warriors with five assists. It was the 10th straight game that Poole finished in double figures. Juan Toscano-Anderson started in place of Green and played well in his absence finishing with 15 points and six rebounds.
Nico Mannion was a big boost offensively off the bench, scoring a career-high 15 points on 5-of-10 from the field, knocking down five of the Warriors 17 made three-pointers.
Golden State was efficient from the floor as a team, shooting a combined 45-of-88 (51.1-percent).
But without Green, Sacramento’s offense bludgeoned the Warriors defense all night.
The Kings shot 60.2-percent from the floor (53-of-88) and 50-percent from behind the three-point line. For most of the game, Sacramento easily got to all of their spots on the floor and made every shot imaginable.
The Kings took a 72-61 lead into halftime on the heels of a 20-point second quarter from Fox, who finished 16-of-22 from the floor and 9-of-10 from the free throw line. He also led Sacramento with seven assists.
“We didn’t make a stand defensively,” said Kerr. “We had no answer for Fox. He was tremendous. He got anywhere he wanted, knocking down 3s and got to the free throw line. Disappointing effort defensively for us tonight.”
Tyrese Haliburton scored 21 points with a career-high six three-pointers, and Richaun Holmes added 25 points and 11 rebounds for the Kings who have won five of their last six games. Kyle Guy recorded 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-6 from deep, off the bench for Sacramento.
The Kings went up by 22 points late in the third quarter on an embarrassing double step-back move on Damion Lee that sent Lee flying before Haliburton drilled a three-pointer and the foul. Haliburton, who does not play like a first-year player, will be a tremendous player for Sacramento for years to come.
In the fourth quarter, Golden State pulled within 11 after Oubre’s third made three-pointer cut the Kings’ lead to 111-100 before Fox’s back-to-back three-pointers proved to be the final daggers for the Warriors.
Sacramento avenged a 31-point loss to Golden State in January before returning the favor tonight at Golden 1 Center.
With the loss, the Warriors (22-23) are under .500 for the first time since New Year’s Day. Golden State has a quick turnaround as they return to San Francisco to take on the visiting Atlanta Hawks at Chase Center on Friday night.
Photo by Warriors/Twitter
