Missing Steph Curry and Chris Paul, Warriors mount 15-point comeback to beat Kings in OT
SACRAMENTO — Even without Steph Curry and Chris Paul, and playing in a game that means nothing in the standings, the Warriors and Sacramento Kings played some entertaining preseason basketball at the Golden 1 Center on Sunday night.
The Warriors overcame a 15-point deficit in the third quarter to force overtime, then knocked off the Kings with a 121-115 victory to move to 3-0 in the preseason.
“Guys are doing a great job closing games to win two straight close ones with clutch play down the stretch,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “It’s fun to see.”
Jonathan Kuminga continued his dominant preseason by scoring a game-high 28 points and Lester Quinones, the 22-year-old Summer League star who signed a two-way contract in July, scored 18 points, including a go-ahead 3-pointer in overtime that sank the Kings.
“These are the moments we’re being tested,” Quinones said. “These are the moments where (Kerr) locks in and sees, ‘I can trust them in this situation.’ Or he looks for the future, can I trust them in a late-game situation? We’re just going out there and getting battle-tested and earning that trust with (Kerr).”
The intensity at the Golden 1 Center felt more like a regular season game than a preseason game, Moses Moody said afterwards.
After all, it was a homecoming game for the Kings, who hadn’t played on their home court since the Warriors ended their season in April.
It was here that the Warriors won a critical Game 5, then laid an egg in Game 6 at home before going back to Sacramento, where Curry scored 50 points in a decisive Game 7.
There’s little doubt that the Kings still have something to prove. Behind NBA Coach of the Year and former Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown, they returned almost their exact same lineup.
Domantas Sabonis, 27, and De’Aaron Fox, 25, dazzled in their time on the court on Sunday.
Fox, who is coming off an All-Star season in which he was also named the NBA Clutch Player of the Year, looked like the fastest player on the floor as he scored 17 points with five rebounds and six assists in 26 minutes.
Sabonis scored 19 while hauling in 11 rebounds. He also went 2-for-2 from 3-point range. The Warriors gave him plenty of space to shoot behind the arc and he told ESPN during the in-game broadcast that he had been working on his long-range shot. If he’s open, he’s going to take it.
With Fox and Sabonis on the floor, the Kings were clearly the better team. The Kings jumped out to a 38-25 lead after the first quarter, but it was hardly a fair matchup with Curry and Paul out of action.
Without them, the Warriors offered a different look, going with Brandon Podziemski at point guard. The first-year man from Santa Clara University offered some glimpses of what made him the No. 19 overall pick in June. And a handful of rookie mistakes, too.
He scored four points in 32 minutes, going 1-for-5 from the field and 0-for-1 from 3-point range. He also contributed six rebounds and four assists.
Without Paul and Curry, Podziemski “handled things great,” Kerr said. “Brandin is just really poised. He has a great feel for the game. He’s strong. He makes plays at both ends. I’m really enjoying watching him play, especially as a young rookie in this league. He’s pretty advanced.”
Kuminga continues to be a focal point of the Warriors’ offense in the preseason, though Sunday he made his biggest impact at the free-throw line.
Unafraid to make physical drives to the basket, Kuminga ended up taking 17 free-throw attempts, draining 13 of them.
Said Kerr: “One of the big things that we’ve talked to JK about is, we’re not the most athletic team, we’re a very skilled team, but we don’t get to the line a ton. Near the bottom of the league last year. So if he can attack and get to the rim and get to the foul line, that makes us a better team.”
Kuminga, who entered Sunday leading the NBA while averaging 25 points through two preseason games, finished with 28 points, six rebounds, one assist and one steal.
Andrew Wiggins scored just 15 points in his first two preseason games combined, but submitted a 20-point performance in 22 minutes on Sunday.
“Me and Wigs, going downhill, there are not a lot of people who can stop us,” Kuminga said. “You have to foul. If you don’t foul, I can go out and make a play. So I’ve just been working on finding a way to get to the rim.”
The Warriors have two more preseason games before their regular season debut vs. the Suns on Oct. 24.
They’ll host the Kings on Wednesday and the Spurs on Friday.
Kerr said he expects the final two games to look more like a dress rehearsal for the real thing.
“Yeah we’ll play our starters more minutes, try to get them closer to 30,” he said.