In a preseason game on Wednesday night, the Golden State Warriors staged a miraculous comeback to overcome the Sacramento Kings 116-115. Even in a meaningless game for the standings, Steph Curry displayed his famous ability to seize control of a game.
With Kevon Looney and Draymond Green out of the lineup, the Warriors had to rely more heavily on their first-string players than they have in prior exhibition contests. It’s perhaps a portent of things to come that head coach Steve Kerr moved offseason signing Chris Paul to the bench. Paul, Curry, Klay Thompson, and Andrew Wiggins all saw action for about 30 minutes.
Although Golden State’s defense had been the focus of their previous preseason games, offensive difficulties caused by careless turnovers stole the show on Wednesday. While Thompson shot a dismal 2 for 11, every other member of the Warriors’ rotation was quite effective from beyond the arc. On the other hand, they gave the ball away 22 times.
Starting in place of Looney, second-round draft pick Trayce Jackson-Davis did a good job limiting Kings All-Star center Domantas Sabonis to 12 points and 10 rebounds on 4-for-10 shooting. Jackson-Davis scored 13 points and pulled down 10 rebounds, but he also committed five fouls.
Despite temporarily taking the lead in the first quarter, Golden State trailed Sacramento for the most of the contest. With a combined 49 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals, De’Aaron Fox and Keegan Murray led the way for the Kings. The Kings had a comfortable 18-point lead with under a minute left in the third quarter.
However, Curry and Paul did not give up so quickly and the Warriors ended up staying. With 3.5 minutes left in the game, the Kings held an 11-point lead. Within ten points, Paul launched a 7-2 run that got the Dubs back in it, and in the final two minutes, Curry was unstoppable. To complete the comeback, the Warriors needed Steph to score all 13 of his team’s points in the final two minutes.
With 45 seconds remaining in regulation, Sacramento was up 114-110, but Curry sank a wild bank three to trim the margin to 115-114. As the Warriors’ defense continued to hold the Kings scoreless, big man Dario Saric was fouled and advanced to the free throw line with a chance to tie or take the lead. Both of his shots were wasted.
When the shot clock was turned off, Warriors defenders fouled Kings point guard Kevin Huerter and sent him to the charity stripe. He made the first and missed the second, leaving Sacramento up 115-113 with 11 seconds to play. After grabbing the offensive board, Curry opted to take a timeout. Coming out of the break, the Warriors threw the ball to Curry, who promptly buried a 30-foot stepback three in Fox’s ear to put the Warriors up 116-115. Fox attempted a response as time ran out, but it was too late. At the end of the game, Curry had 30 points on 10-for-18 shooting from the field (including 8-for-12 from deep).