The Golden State Warriors staged a remarkable comeback on Wednesday night, beating the Sacramento Kings 116-115 in a preseason game. Steph Curry displayed his famous ability to take over a game even in a meaningless regular season game.
Due to the absence of Kevon Looney and Draymond Green, the Warriors relied more heavily on their first-string players than they have in prior preseason contests. The move by head coach Steve Kerr to move offseason acquisition Chris Paul to the bench is a harbinger of things to come. All four starters—Paul, Curry, Thompson, and Wiggins—saw about 30 minutes of action.
Previously in the preseason, Golden State’s defense had been the focus, but on Wednesday, offensive difficulties due to sloppy mistakes stole the show. While Thompson shot a terrible 2-for-11 from the field, the rest of the Warriors’ bench was incredibly effective from beyond the arc. They turned the ball over 22 times, though.
The Kings’ All-Star center Domantas Sabonis was held to 12 points and 10 rebounds on 4-for-10 shooting by the team’s starting rookie, second-round pick Trayce Jackson-Davis. Jackson-Davis scored 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds despite picking up five fouls.
After temporarily taking the lead in the first quarter, Golden State trailed Sacramento for the rest of the game. Both De’Aaron Fox and Keegan Murray contributed heavily to the Kings’ victory. The two players accounted for 49 points, 15 boards, 5 assists, and 4 steals. The Kings had a comfortable 18-point lead with less than a minute left in the third quarter.
But Curry and Paul did not give up so easy, and neither did the Warriors. With 3.5 minutes left on the clock, the Kings’ lead had ballooned to 11. In the final two minutes, Curry was unstoppable, and the Dubs got within single digits after a 7-2 run spurred by Paul. All of the Warriors’ comeback points—13 in total—came in the final two minutes, and Steph scored them all.
With 45 seconds remaining in regulation, Sacramento was up 114-110, but Curry hit a crazy bank three to cut the lead to 115-114. Dario Saric, a big player for the Warriors, was fouled while trying to tie or take the lead after his team had kept the Kings scoreless for the previous four minutes. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful both times.
Kevin Huerter, a guard with the Kings, was fouled by the Warriors when the shot clock was disabled. With 11 seconds left, he made the first and missed the second, putting Sacramento up 115-113. After grabbing the offensive board, Curry paused play. Out of the timeout, the Warriors sent the ball to Curry, who promptly buried a 30-foot step-back three in Fox’s ear to put the Warriors up 116-115. As time ran out, Fox shot a response but missed. Curry scored 30 points on 10-for-18 shooting (8-for-12 from 3-point range).