It’s heartbreak deep in the heart of Texas for the Kings losing in OT to the Spurs 105-104

Graphic: @NBC Sports CA

By Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings played game two of their four-game road trip on Friday night in San Antonio. The Kings lost game one on Wednesday night in Portland. It took 53 minutes to decide the winner of game two in the “Alamo City”, but when the final buzzer sounded, the Spurs had won the game 105-104 in overtime.

The Kings have now lost five of their last six games and have fallen five games under .500 with a record of 8-13. Not only are the men of SAC headed in the wrong direction in the standings but their immediate future prospects are not great. Their final two games of this road trip are with the Dallas Mavericks (15-5) and the Houston Rockets (14-7) – two of the hottest teams in the NBA.

When the Kings left on this road trip, we projected that they would win one game and lose three. We expected the one win to happen in Portland or San Antonio. Now that Sacramento has lost to both the Trail Blazers and the Spurs, our projection has changed to the team finishing the road trip 0-4. That would put the Kings nine games under .500 by the time they return to Sacramento.

The Kings could have won this game
The game was tied at 89-89 with 3:44 to go in the game. The Kings went on a 9-0 run to take what looked like a commanding lead with just 1:43 remaining in the contest, but this is the NBA and you can never assume anything.

The Spurs scored eight unanswered points in less than a minute. The Kings were stunned. San Antonio possessed the ball with 14.3 seconds to go in regulation time. The Spurs worked the ball to Marco Belinelli with 4.1 seconds on the clock. Belinelli let a 3-pointer fly from the right angle and put it through the hoop to tie the game at 100 apiece and force OT.

Overtime was not pretty
The first point in OT wasn’t scored until the 3:07 mark when DeMar DeRozan hit the first of three free throw attempts. There would be only a total of nine points scored in the entire five minutes of overtime. It was just plain ugly.

The Kings wound up with the final possession of the game when it was ruled that Spurs last touched the ball that went out of bounds after a jump ball.

Sacramento did their best putting up four shots in the final 17.4 seconds to try and take the lead. They fought ferociously to get rebounds to have the opportunity to take another shot but none of their four final attempts would fall. When time expired, the Spurs had won the game 105-104.

Leading scorers

• Buddy Hield scored a game-high 23 points for the Kings.
• LaMarcus Aldridge led Spurs scoring attack with 19 points.

The Glass Cleaners

• Richaun Holmes pulled down 14 rebounds to go with 13 points for a double-double game.
• LaMarcus Aldridge also had a double-double by grabbing 13 rebounds to go with his 19 points.

Tossing out the dimes

• The Spurs DeMar DeRozan dropped nine dimes in the game.
• Harrison Barnes – who also scored 21 points and had 10 rebounds – distributed 5 assists.

Think about it

• The Kings starters scored 69 points while their second unit added 35 points.
• The Spurs starting five scored 52 points and their bench put 53 points. That’s called depth.

Up next

The Kings will have Saturday off and will play the Mavericks in Dallas on Sunday.

The Spurs go on vacation as they are off until next Thursday when they will host Cleveland.

Golden State shows no mercy, jumps all over San Antonio in Game 1

@warriors photo: Golden State Warriors Kevin Durant (left) and Draymond Green (right) address the media at press conference after their game one win at Oracle Arena on Saturday

By Joe Hawkes-Beamon
SRS Contributor

OAKLAND — It almost felt like forever since we’ve seen the Warriors dominate a basketball game from start to finish.

Until Saturday afternoon.

Already without All-Star point guard and two-time MVP Stephan Curry, the defending NBA Champions started their title defense with a 113-92 victory over the visiting San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.

The win extends Golden State’s win streak to six games in postseason openers, according to ESPN Stats and Information.

Both Kevin Durant and Draymond Green flirted with triple-doubles, as Durant finished with 24 points, eight rebounds and seven assists; while Green chipped in with 12 points, eight rebounds and 11 assists.

Klay Thompson finished with a game-high 27 points. San Antonio had no answer for Thompson, especially coming off of hard screens from Warriors’ bigs, allowing Thompson to shoot 11-of-13 from the floor including 5-of-6 on 3’s in the game.

Golden State held the edge in assists (32 to 19), rebounds (51 to 30) and points-in-the-paint (34 to 22) over the Spurs. The Warriors shot 44-of-81 from the floor (54.3-percent) and 10-of-22 on 3’s (45.5-percent).

Golden State held a 86-63 lead, their biggest of the game, at the end of the third quarter and they never looked back from that point.

JaVale McGee, who made his fourth career postseason start, finished with 15 points on 5-of-7 shooting in just 16 minutes of action was the real story. The 7-foot McGee had two of Golden State’s six blocks and for now, looks like the best center in head coach Steve Kerr’s center-by-committee rotation which includes, Zaza Pachulia and Damian Jones in the mix.

Rudy Gay led San Antonio with 15 points off the bench, to go along with a team-high six rebounds, while LaMarcus Aldridge, San Antonio’s leading scorer during the regular season at 23.1 points per game, scored just 14 points on 5-of-12 shooting in 24 minutes played.

San Antonio was cold from the floor in Game 1, connecting on 32-of-80 (40-percent) of their shots.  The Spurs can take some comfort that they did committed fewer turnovers (13 to 15) and shot better at the free throw line (19-of-24 to 15-of-22) than Golden State.

Second-year shooting guard Bryn Forbes added 14 points in 25 minutes for San Antonio.

Golden State is looking to eliminate San Antonio from the playoffs for the second-straight postseason. The Warriors completed a four-game sweep of the Spurs in last season’s Western Conference Finals in route to a 16-1 finish in the postseason and their second championship in three seasons.

The Warriors are 6-2 in the postseason against San Antonio at home.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is Monday night at Oracle Arena.

 

 

The Golden 1 Center opens on Thursday night ; the Spurs beat the Kings 102-94

Photo credit: Sergio Estrada USA Today

Charlie O. Mallonee

Sacramento – Thursday night had all the pomp and circumstance of a Hollywood premiere as the long awaited official opening of the NBA home season took place for the Sacramento Kings. The NBA commissioner was there along with the former commissioner David Stern who sat with Governor Jerry Brown. Out-going mayor Kevin Johnson received his standing ovation for his efforts to build the arena. In-coming mayor Darrell Steinberg and members of the city council managed to get some face time.

Former Kings player Chris Webber and Washington Nationals manager Dusty Baker were seated courtside. If you were anybody in Sacramento or thought you were anybody, you were in the Golden 1 Center for the game on Thursday night.

DeMarcus Cousins officially welcomed the fans to arena on behalf of the team. Majority owner Vivek Ranadive took great pride in welcoming fans to the state of the art arena the ownership group promised them when they bought the team.

The opening was really something to see. If you missed it, you can go to Kings.com and take in the highlights. It will be worth your time.

Then, there was the game between the unbeaten San Antonio Spurs who shocked the Golden Stated Warriors on Tuesday night in Oakland and the 1-0 Sacramento Kings who dominated the Phoenix Suns on the road in their season opener on Wednesday night.

The Kings knew they would be in for a fight because they had to face the team that is picked to win the Southwest Division – even without Tim Duncan- on second half of a back-to-back, away-home schedule. Even though the team was full of adrenaline to do well in front of their faithful fans at the opening of the Golden 1 Center, the task before for them was a difficult one at best.

The Kings played with tenacity and gave the crowd cause to cheer often,but ultimately the talent of Spurs and the fatigue of the back-to-back games caught up to them in their pursuit of a win. The Spurs defeated the Kings 102-94 in first ever regular season NBA game in the Golden 1 Center.

Kings (1-1)

DeMarcus Cousins led the attack for the Kings against the Spurs. He scored 37 points and pulled down 16 rebounds to record a double-double in the game. Cousins shot 10-for-22 from the floor, 3-for-5 from beyond the 3-point arc and went 14-for-16 from the free throw line. The Kings big man spent much of the second-half under the basket involved in a very physical battle with LaMarcus Aldridge and the San Antonio front line. At times, Cousins temper seemed to be very close to boiling over, but he managed to keep it in check.

Rudy Gay had to do battle with Kawhi Leonard all night. Gay finished the game with 17 points with 10 of those points coming at the free throw line. He hauled 7 rebounds, had two steals and two assists as well.

Ben McLemore finished with 10 points in the contest. His best efforts came in the first-half. McLemore shot 3-for-4 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free throw line. Unfortunately for him, it will probably be back-to-back turnovers that resulted in back-to-back personal fouls in the fourth quarter that many of the fans will remember.

Ty Lawson did his job at point guard for the Kings. Head coach Dave Joerger had said that Lawson would see heavy minutes of playing time and he worked 35 minutes on the floor versus the Spurs. Lawson dished out nine assists and turned the ball over just one time. Lawson added seven points, four rebounds and one steal.

Kosta Koufos scored eight, Arron Afflalo seven, Matt Barnes and Willie Cauley-Stein three points each and Anthony Tolliver had two points.

As a team, the Kings shot 40.0-percent (28-for-70) from the floor after shooting 51.4-percent in the first-half. They went 6-for-20 (30.0-percent) from beyond the 3-point line while going 32-for-38 (84.2-percent) from the free throw line. They matched the Spurs by grabbing 40 rebounds. The Kings tallied 22 assists against 15 turnovers.

Spurs (2-0)

To no one’s surprise, Kawhi Leonard led the Spurs scoring against the Kings. Leonard scored 30 points shooting an impressive 11-for-21 from the floor. He was a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line. Leonard also distributed five assists and recorded five steals. He played the last half of the fourth quarter with five personal fouls but it did not seem to slow him down.

LaMarcus Aldridge – the supposed discontented member of the Spurs who wants to be traded – added 16 points and five rebounds while giving DeMarcus Cousins fits under the basket for the entire game. Aldridge played hard and did not give off any signals that he was a player who wanted to be in another uniform.

Dewayne Dedmon and David Lee both had an impact in the game off the bench with 12 points each. Dedmon also had seven rebounds while Lee dished out two assists and had two steals.

San Antonio shot 45.6-percent (36-for-79) from the floor and 33.3-percent (6-for-18) from 3-point land. The Spurs went 24-for-27 from the charity stripe. They recorded 40 rebounds, 23 assists and 10 assists. The Spurs turned the ball over nine times.

What they had to say after the game

“Good game, good effort,” said Kings head coach Dave Joerger. “As competitors, you never want to say you played hard but you lost. But I liked a lot of the things I saw tonight. I thought we ran out of gas a bit. I think out turnovers were deadly and I think they made some tough, tough shots down the stretch. I thought our half-court defense was very solid. When our defense was on the run after turnovers, it’s very difficult to get back and defend.”

“Yeah, it was a big night for everybody. Us, playing in front of the fans and for the fans. This is a lot – this is a new era of basketball in Sacramento and it was good to be a part of it,” said Kings forward Rudy Gay. “Obviously the fans drive us to a new level. This was a playoff atmosphere and it’s good to have that.”

“Coach Joerger is a hell of a coach,” said Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich. “He’s got them playing defense already after one game because of the way they played defense in Memphis. That’s because he knows what he’s doing, obviously. But, that’s a tribute to those guys to pick that up and jump in. If they sustain that, that’s going to be a good basketball team. You can see his stamp all over it defensively.”

Notes

The first home game at Golden 1 Center was a sellout with 17,608 in attendance.

The Kings next opponent is the Minnesota Timberwoles on Saturday  night at 7:30 PM at the Golden 1 Center.

The Spurs will have their home opener on Saturday night when they host New Orleans.

Golden State Warriors Tuesday game wrap: Big Tumble–The San Antonio Spurs trounce the Dubs on Opening Night.

by Jerry Feitelberg

AP photo: Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry can only roll on the floor in the first half after being overwhelmed by too much San Antonio Spurs in Tuesday night’s game at Oracle Arena for the home opener

My oh my. The San Antonio Spurs spoiled opening night by trouncing the Golden State Warriors 129-100. The Spurs, led by Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, and Johnathan Simmons outplayed the Warriors in every facet of the game and sent the sellout crowd home wondering if the Warriors are in trouble. Golden State did not look at all like the team that won 73 games last year. They are still a very good team, but it may take a little time for all the pieces to mesh together.

The Dubs took the lead 16-14 with 5:54 left in the first period. That was the only lead they would have the entire night. The Spurs outran, outshot, outrebounded and beat the Dubs on defense all night long. The Spurs, Kawhi Leonard who was second in last year’s MVP voting, scored a career-high thirty-five points. Big LaMarcus Aldridge knocked down twenty-six and had fourteen rebounds. The Spurs bench outscored the Dubs’ bench by an astounding 45-13. Every time the Dubs made a run to narrow the gap, the Spurs answered the challenge. Leading 18-16 late in the first period, they went on a 13-4 run to lead 31-20 at the end of the first period. The Spurs scored thirty-three in the second period as they took an eighteen-point lead at the half 64-46. Steph Curry and Kevin Durant led the Dubs’ attack with eighteen and fourteen respectively, but Klay Thompson had just two points and was one for seven from the floor. The Warriors made just four three-point shots in nineteen attempts. San Antonio made six treys in just ten attempts. Leonard, Aldridge and Jonathan Simmons, off the bench, were the key players for San Antonio.

The home crowd was hoping for a patented Warrior come-from-behind surge in the third period. However, The Spurs continued to beat the Dubs on offense and continued to disrupt the Warrior attack. The Spurs led by twenty at the end of the third and won by twenty-nine 129-100. Leonard finished the game with 35, Aldridge with 26 and bench players Simmons had 20, Mills with eleven and the veteran, Manu Ginobili pitched in with 10. Kevin Durant led the Dubs with 27 points and ten rebounds. Curry scored 26, and Draymond Green knocked down 18 to go with six assists and twelve rebounds. Klay Thompson finished the night with 11. The Spurs dominated the board on both ends of the court. They outrebounded the Dubs 62-41. They had the edge in offensive rebounds 20-8 and 34-27 on defense. The Dubs turned the ball over sixteen times to add to their woes.

The Warriors are a work in progress. The Warriors lost six key players. The new players have shown that they can play in the NBA. However, it takes time for the players to mesh together and find the rhythm that the Dubs had the last two years. They have 81 games left, and the Spurs are an excellent team and will be in contention for the best record in the Western Division. The Dubs play the next three games on the road. They face the New Orleans Pelicans Friday night. They then travel to Phoenix on Sunday. They are in Portland next Tuesday to face Damian Lillard and the Blazer. They return home November 4th to face the Oklahoma Thunder, Kevin Durant’s old team. Talk about a grudge match. That game should be a barnburner.

Curry Returns But Warriors Drop a Chippy 113-101 Contest to Trailblazers

By Matthew Harrington

The Golden State Warriors became another victim in the Portland Trailblazers’ 10-game unbeaten streak, suffering a 113-101 loss at Oracle Arena Saturday night. The Trailblazers (12-2) rallied in the closing minutes of the third and start of the fourth quarter to come from behind in a chippy affair that saw three ejections, 53 combined personal fouls and seven technical fouls.

LaMarcus Aldrige had his third career 20-20 game, dropping 30 points on the Warriors while reeling in 21 rebounds. Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 30 points before fouling out in the fourth while Stephen Curry added 22 points on 8 of 21 shooting in his return to the lineup. Andre Iguodala did not play for the short-handed Warriors (8-6) after straining his left hamstring in Friday night’s loss to the Lakers.

Golden State held a 54-49 lead at the half, but a third-quarter scuffle sparked a Portland comeback. The Warriors held a 77-63 lead when Aldridge was leveled to the court. Wesley Matthews received a technical foul after taking exception to the play and in the aftermath the Trailblazers’ Joel Freeland and Andrew Bogut began jawing and shoving each other, sending both benches into chaos. The referees restored order, handing out six technical fouls and ejecting Draymond Green from the game along with Portland’s Mo Williams and Matthews.

The skirmish inspired the Trailblazers to go on a run for the remainder of the quarter, cutting the Golden State lead to 84-81 before completing the comeback on a 12-2 run to open the final stanza, coasting for a victory from there.

The Warriors now face unusual territory this season, sputtering through a three-game losing streak, including a two-game winless stretch at home. Last season, the Warriors only lost consecutive home games once, falling to the Houston Rockets and Milwaukee backs in both ends of a back-to-back. The Warriors have not lost more three games or more in a row at home since a five-game skid to end the 2011-12 season.

Golden State do not receive an opportunity to defend home-court until December, going on a four-game road trip with stops in New Orleans, Dallas, Oklahoma City before a return to California for clash with the Kings in Sacramento.

Tuesday’s tilt against New Orleans will give the Warriors their first look at the newly-branded Pelicans as well as a chance to try to regain a tie atop the Pacific Division standings with the Los Angeles Clippers. Golden State sits one back of first while New Orleans stands in dead last in the Southwest Division with a 6-6 record, tied for third-worst in the Western Conference.

Kings Lose Again

 

By Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings suffered their fifth consecutive loss on Saturday night to the Portland Trail Blazers 96-85. The Kings trailed by as many as 20 points but made a comeback late in the fourth quarter. It was too little and too late.

In his post-game comments, Coach Michael Malone said his team needs to be more physical on defense. His team allowed the Blazers to pull down 19 offensive rebounds which created second and third chance opportunities for Portland to score.

Malone made no bones about what is going to happen before the Kings next game versus Brooklyn. He said, “… there will be changes.” He stated after six games he had seen enough to know that changes have to be made.

Malone also said that the Kings comeback attempts are coming too late in the game to give the team a chance to win. He knows his team has a great deal of work to do on both ends of the floor.

The Kings were outscored in three of the four quarters on Saturday night. They did manage to outscore the Blazers 31-27 in the final period.

On Friday night, the Kings were undone by the combination of LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard. Lillard scored just four points on Saturday in 36:45 minutes of playing time.

It was the combination of Aldridge and Wesley Matthews who inflected the pain on Saturday. Aldridge shot 10 for 19 from the floor scoring a team leading 22 points. Matthews was 8 for 11 from the field putting up 21 points for the game.

Coach Malone felt the play of Matthews was one the keys to Portland’s victory. He felt Matthews just scored at will.

Four of the five Portland starters scored in double figures. As a team, the Blazers shot 43.9% (36-82) from the field. That was well below their 48.8% of Friday night, but things became sloppy for the Blazers in the fourth quarter.

The Trail Blazers out rebounded the Kings 52-33. They also kept the Kings out of the paint in the first half forcing them take low percentage outside shots.

After the game Portland Head Coach Terry Stotts said,”It’s good to get a win. Back-to-back wins against the same team is not easy to do. The Kings are a good home team here. They’ve come back on everybody that they’ve played. It’s good to get out of here with a win. We played three good quarters of very good defense; they just made a strong run at the end.”

DeMarcus Cousins scored 30 plus points for the second consecutive game. Cousins finished with 33 points and 12 rebounds. He scored 15 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter. Cousins led all scorers in the game.

Isaiah Thomas added 12 points but only two of those points came in the second half. Thomas played just 17:20 minutes in the game. Greivis Vasquez played 32:19 at the point and scored six points plus he had five assists.

The play of Ben McLemore was one of the highlights for the Kings on Saturday night. The rookie played 27:30 minutes scoring 13 points. He was three for three from 3-point land and shot 50.0% (4-8) from the field. McLemore pulled down three rebounds along with one steal and one assist.

12 of the 13 Kings players saw playing time versus the Blazers. Only Ray McCallum did not enter the game for Sacramento.

The Kings shot 46.2% (36-78) for the game. Sacramento shot an abysmal 25.0% (3-12) from beyond the 3-point line.

The Kings coaching staff must search for answers between now and Wednesday when the Brooklyn Nets come to Sleep Train Arena.

That search for answers has already begun. As I walked to my car after the game, I observed Coach Malone and two of his assistants standing in the parking lot talking about what they should do to change things.

 

 

 

 

Dismal second half drowns Warriors, lose 90-74 to the Trail Blazers

By Gabe Schapiro

In their final preseason tune-up, in what wasn’t a particularly well-played game for either side, the Golden State Warriors were defeated by the Portland Trail Blazers, 90-74. The Warriors had a solid first half, but the wheels fell off from there, doing more damage then they could overcome. Golden State finishes the preseason with a 3-4 record.

Coming out of the gate it was the Warriors who looked more crisp and ready to play. Portland was extremely sloppy, thanks in part to strong defensive play from Golden State, turning the ball over seven times and shooting just 33% from the field in the first quarter. The Warriors, on the other hand, turned the ball over just once. They made a few mistakes but as a whole played well. Klay Thompson led the way with eight points. Andre Iguodala chipped in another five. Damian Lillard was the only thing keeping the Trail Blazers in the game with seven points. At the end of one the Warriors had a 23-16 lead.

The second quarter saw both benches get extended play. The Trail Blazers started finding their shot and chipped away at the lead, but never managed to overtake it. Golden State’s starters returned and grabbed a hold of the momentum again. Curry caught fire, scoring eight points in the quarter including a big three-pointer in the waning seconds that lifted the fans to their feet. For Portland it was Mo Williams’ turn to keep them in the game, coming off the bench to the tune of 11 points in the quarter. It wasn’t enough, however, and through 24 minutes of play, the Warriors maintained their seven-point lead, 48-41.

Coming out of the locker room Golden State scored a quick three points to give them their biggest lead of the game at 11. From there, however, they completely lost their shot and things got ugly. Portland went on a 22-0 run, fueled in large part by Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge, before the Warriors finally found the bottom of the net again with a little over two minutes to play in the quarter. After out-scoring Golden State 25-9 in the third, the Trail Blazers had grabbed a 66-57 lead.

The Warriors made a small push in the fourth quarter, at one point going on a 7-0 run, but they would never seriously threat re-taking the lead. Fans started heading for the exits in packs with several minutes remaining, as the Trail Blazers eased their way to victory.

Lillard had a game-high 21 points. Aldridge (16 points, 12 rebounds) and Nicolas Batum (10 points, 15 rebounds) both finished with double-doubles.

For Golden State Curry led the scoring with 17 points and a game-high six assists. Thompson finished with 16 points and five rebounds.

For the Warriors the regular season begins next Wednesday, October 30 when they will be taking on the LA Lakers at Oracle Arena.