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What we learned how JK and Buddy led the Warriors to a preseason win against the Kings originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – The last time the Warriors set foot on center court at Golden 1, their season came to an embarrassing end at the hands of a big loss to the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Play-In Tournament six months ago.
Rematch is not served in the preseason, but there were plenty of reasons for the Warriors to be happy with their 122-112 victory over the Kings.
friend icedOriginally drafted 6th overall by the Kings in 2016, he scored a game-high 22 points. He was plus-13 in 19 minutes, making eight of his nine shot attempts, while also going 6 of 7 from three.
Throughout the squad, the Warriors lit up from long range and also took care of the ball. The Warriors made 21 more three-pointers than the Kings. They also had 34 assists on 44 made shots and turned the ball over just 13 times.
Kings’ offseason star acquisition De Mar De Rozan He scored 15 points in 15 minutes, making all six of his shots in his debut with his new team.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors who improved to 2-0 in the preseason.
New starting five
Steve Kerr has said that this training camp and preseason are about finding the right combinations to determine who fits best. The first group he went to Hawaii with on Saturday was Steph Curry, De’Anthony Melton, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis. In the second game of the preseason, Kerr opted to trade Brandin Podziemski for Melton and Kevon Looney replaced Jackson-Davis at center.
Those five starters didn’t play together once all last season.
When Kerr went to his bench for the first time four days ago, the Warriors were trailing 17-12. The new starting five trailed 16-13 before Kerr made his first trade Wednesday night, sending Jackson-Davis for Looney. Curry then tied the game seconds later with a three-pointer.
Looney started the game by making a mid-range jump shot and only took one more shot for the rest of the game. In more than 16 minutes, Green scored 10 points with five assists, two rebounds and two turnovers. Kuminga battled foul trouble early, but showed off his improved jumper with 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-7 from beyond the arc. Podziemski dished out a game-high eight assists and also scored eight points, grabbed four rebounds and two steals.
Apart from the first five minutes and 45 seconds of the first quarter, the starting lineup did not share the court again throughout the game.
Steph Show hits the sack
Even at 36 years old and entering his 16th season, Curry may still have first-game jitters. Or maybe he just had a day off in Honolulu when the all-time great shooter went 2 of 8 from the field and missed all four of his 3-point attempts to open the preseason. Back in Northern California, Curry found his opportunity and gave Golden State fans a lot to cheer about.
Curry scored eight points in the first quarter, making all three of his shots, including two three-pointers.
In the second quarter, Curry scored another five points for his 13th on the night. Curry was 2 of 4 in the quarter and made one of his three attempts from behind the 3-point line. In just under 16 minutes, Curry looked much more like himself than he had a few days earlier.
However, his -7 plus/minus was the lowest in the Warriors’ starting lineup. For the second straight game, he and Green did not play in the second half.
3 point parade
The Warriors made 48 3-pointers in their first preseason game, while they only made 11. And Lindy Waters III made five of them.
During Kerr’s pregame media availability, I asked the Warriors coach about that high number of 3-pointers, and here’s what he said: “I don’t necessarily have a number in mind. I want to take a lot of them, and the I want to be good shots. We need to be better in transition. We should get more threes in transition than in recent years. Our points per possession in transition have been 26th in the league.
“Part of that is turnovers, part of that is we have to do a better job as a coaching staff with our spacing. And then in the half court, yeah, we’d rather have a three-point shot than a mid-range shot. “I also like good mid-range shots. We’re trying to find the balance.”
Letting it fly has been an emphasis of Kerr’s for his Warriors, and they did it again in Sacramento. This time, with much more success.
At halftime, they had already made 27 three-pointers and made 15. Along with Curry’s three three-pointers, Hield made all four of his attempts. Melton had three in the first half, and Green and Kuminga each also had a pair.
They ended up totaling 52 three-point attempts, making 28, which was good for a percentage of 53.8 percent. A total of 10 Warriors made a three-pointer, and eight of those players made more than one.
His 28 three-pointers would have been a franchise record if this were a regular season game.