Friday’s game was something of a must-win for the Golden State Warriors. Not because they were in desperate need of a victory (though they never hurt), but because there was no excuse not to win, and a loss would be a massive red flag. They were at home. They were playing the 8-29 Sacramento Kings. And they were almost fully healthy, while the Kings were missing All-Star Domantas Sabonis and starter Keegan Murray.
A win was necessary, and a blowout was expected. And while the latter took a while to show
up, it was, indeed, a blowout, with the Warriors securing a lopsided 137-103 victory.
It was clear, from the early going, that the Warriors would put up a crooked number on the Kings. It just wasn’t clear if they could keep Sacramento from doing the same. Golden State’s offense was flowing from the get-go, and just 2:30 into the game they already held a 13-4 lead. But the Kings team — replete with both veteran talent and electric athleticism — had a good response, and the score was close in no time at all. The Kings kept threatening — a theme of the night — but the Warriors kept responding … also a theme. The Dubs didn’t have their best defensive performance early, but the offense was still pretty enough for a lead. Behind 11 points from Steph Curry, they led 34-29 after the opening frame.
Sacramento came out firing in the second quarter, while Golden State was getting a little sloppy — something that has, thankfully, been disappearing from their performances lately. The Kings scored the first six points of the quarter to take the lead, though the Warriors didn’t appear particularly concerned. Jimmy Butler III started to take over for Golden State, but Sacramento’s athleticism kept the score close. It never felt like the Warriors were particularly in danger, but they couldn’t build a comfortable lead, and the halftime advantage was just 63-59. It was the Warriors game to lose, but it was also far closer than it should have been given the talent disparity between the two teams.
The third quarter was entertaining. The teams jockeyed for the first nine-plus minutes, with Curry and Zach LaVine going back and forth. Both squads were flying up and down the court and hitting highlight shots, with the lead swapping hands on more than one occasion.
With a few minutes remaining, the game was tied, and I jotted a note in my recap outline: “feels like they’re in control, even though they can’t pull away.”
And just like that, they pulled away. The veteran trio Butler, Al Horford, and De’Anthony Melton completely took over in the waning moments of the quarter, which was punctuated with an excellent two-for-one: on the front end, Horford went to work in the post for a shifty baby hook, and on the back end, Melton drained a three. And with that, the Warriors ended the quarter on a 13-0 run, turning a tied game into a 97-84 lead as we headed to the fourth.
Between the talent gap and the momentum, it felt like a much larger lead, and soon it would be. Gui Santos made a layup on the opening possession of the quarter to push the run to 15-0, and with that, the route was on. A few minutes later it was a 20-point lead, and suddenly it was Brandin Podziemski’s turn to take over, as he did everything from drain falling-out-of-bounds jumpers to drawing a technical foul on Russell Westbrook as the Kings got more and more frustrated.
There would be no fourth quarter collapse, or even anything resembling it. The lead just grew and grew and grew, peaking at 35 points before the Dubs settled into a tidy 137-103 victory. Following that tie late in the third quarter, the Warriors outscored the Kings 53-19 over the final 14:53. The blowout that should have occurred did, indeed, occur.
