SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 The Warriors didn\u2019t have Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler or Draymond Green when they allowed the Sacramento Kings to notch one of only eight wins so far this season against them in November.<\/p>\n
At full strength for the teams\u2019 second meeting Friday, Golden State didn\u2019t need Curry to finish off a 137-103 rout over the Western Conference\u2019s bottom dwellers. It was the Warriors\u2019 eighth win in their past 11 games since coach Steve Kerr established his current starting five.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re in a good groove with our rotation and it helps to have the same lineup out there,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cIt feels like the version of the team that we expected.\u201d<\/p>\n
Curry scored all of his game-high 27 points in the first three periods and added 10 assists for his second double-double of the season. De\u2019Anthony Melton led five other scorers in double figures with 19, and the Warriors (21-18) pulled away by mounting a 15-0 run with Curry on the bench to close the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Leading the second unit, Butler helped Golden State outscore Sacramento by 20 points during his 23 minutes, while Brandin Podziemski finished a game-best plus-28 largely as the point guard with the same group.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s lifting that group,\u201d Curry said of Butler, who finished with 15 points, six rebounds and six assists. \u201cThe way they ended the third quarter won the game, essentially.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golden State led by four points at halftime but outscored the Kings (8-30) 74-44 the rest of the way. They turned the ball over only 11 times and shot 54.7% from the field.<\/p>\n
The score was tied at 84 when Curry took a seat with 3:02 left in the third quarter for his typical rest pattern. He checked out for the final time with 5:40 to play and the Warriors leading 119-92.<\/p>\n
\u201cJimmy takes pride in his group winning those minutes,\u201d Curry said. \u201cHe talks about it all the time. \u2026 It is a drastic change in style, but it\u2019s still a beautiful game. You saw him get downhill, kick it out to shooters. He puts so much pressure on the defense every possession, even if he\u2019s not the one shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Warriors pulled away late the third quarter, widening their lead to double digits for the first time with 37 seconds remaining in the period. Melton and Al Horford converted buckets on back-to-back possessions to close the quarter, allowing Golden State to take a 97-84 advantage into the fourth.<\/p>\n
Curry had 18 points and six assists by halftime, but the Warriors possessed only a slim 63-59 advantage. Golden State played a clean first quarter, assisting on 11 of its 13 baskets and turning the ball over only twice, but allowed the Kings to convert 15 second-chance points to keep the game close.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey played well and hung with us. We never really got much going defensively in the first 32 minutes of the game or so,\u201d said Kerr, who called the second half a \u201creally good close to a game that we weren\u2019t really handling that well for most of the first two quarters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golden State improved to 1-1 against their Northern California foes this season after dropping their first meeting, 121-116 in Sacramento.<\/p>\n
The Warriors were without Curry, Green or Butler in the Nov. 5 loss but were at full strength for the teams\u2019 second meeting on Friday. Green drained three 3-pointers, all assisted by Curry, en route to 11 points, eight assists and six rebounds, while Podziemski (14), Gary Payton II (12) and Quinten Post (11) also scored in double figures.<\/p>\n
Afterward, Curry was asked if the Warriors considered the team headquartered about 90 miles east to be their rivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeographically, yeah,\u201d he replied with a smirk. \u201cThat\u2019s about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerr on Kuminga<\/p>\n
The Warriors had won seven of their past 10 games entering Friday\u2019s contest, including a 120-113 win over the Milwaukee Bucks the last time they took the court, which Kerr said before tipoff was \u201creally the first time we\u2019ve seen our team as we envisioned it before the season started.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerr has settled on a rotation, using the same starting five for nine of those 10 games. Kerr rolled with the same group against the Kings, meaning Jonathan Kuminga watched from the bench for the 11th game in a row. Kuminga is eligible to be traded beginning Thursday, with Sacramento emerging as the only serious suitor, according to the latest reporting from The Athletic\u2019s Sam Amick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I\u2019m disappointed for him that things didn\u2019t continue to go the way they did the first couple of weeks,\u201d Kerr said of Kuminga, who started all of Golden State\u2019s first 12 games but has appeared in only six of 27 since. \u201cAt the same time it was going to be tricky to start JK, Jimmy, Draymond at the 2, 3 and 4. Anybody can see that\u2019s a tough combination \u2026 based on shooting. We gave that lineup several weeks and eventually the weaknesses of the lineup were exposed, so that\u2019s why we went in a different direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his 12th season leading the Warriors, Kerr has heard it all when it comes to critiquing his lineup choices. It\u2019s part of the reason why he enjoys conversations with his mother, who \u201cI don\u2019t ever have to worry about calling to ask about Kuminga or substitution patterns, strategy,\u201d Kerr joked.<\/p>\n
Kerr can\u2019t even catch a break in his fantasy football league, which he plays in with 11 others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe finished our season last week. The website updated all the of rankings. I finished 12th in coaching ranking,\u201d Kerr said, reading from his phone. \u201cThe website said, \u2018Coach Kerr had plenty of decisions to regret after his lineup choices left him as the worst gameday coach in the league.\u2019 \u2026 This is a time for me to take a long look in the mirror. I have to reassess everything.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 The Warriors didn\u2019t have Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler or Draymond Green when they allowed the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2454,7000,402,181,129,121,123,122,127],"class_list":{"0":"post-128319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sacramento","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-golden-state-warriors","10":"tag-inside-sports","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-sacramento","14":"tag-sacramento-headlines","15":"tag-sacramento-news","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}