Sports Writing (USA), Apr 26 (EFE).- The Golden State Warriors gave an important blow on the table this Wednesday by beating the Sacramento Kings (116-123) at home, with which on Friday they will have in their court the option to close their qualification for the Western semifinals (2-3).
Stephen Curry (31 points and 8 assists) was the beacon of a very focused, serious and complete Warriors on all fronts.
Thus, the great collective work of the current NBA champions (33 assists from the entire team for 50 baskets) was also supported by Klay Thompson (25 points), Andrew Wiggins (20 points) and, especially, a Draymond Green multitasking and tremendously effective off the bench (21 points and 7 assists) and a once again gigantic Kevon Looney in the paint (22 rebounds, 7 of them offensive, as well as 7 assists).
The victory in Sacramento for Steve Kerr’s team is especially valuable since in the regular season they were a painful team away from home (11-30) but very solid in San Francisco (33-8).
For the Kings, De’Aaron Fox, in his first game since breaking his left index finger, played with a splint to protect his injured finger and scored 24 points (9-of-25 shooting, 3-of-10 3-pointers), 7-for-10 rebounds and 9 assists.
Malik Monk and Domantas Sabonis added 21 points per head in a Kings now forced to win two straight games and that tonight started wonderfully in the triple (8 of 12) and crashed in the last three quarters (2 of 22).
THE MAGNIFYING GLASS ON FOX
There was a lot of expectation to see how his problems with his left index finger would affect Fox, especially in shooting since he is left-handed, but the point guard quickly cleared up any doubts.
Going an impressive 3-for-3 3-point run, Fox made it clear to the Warriors that he would continue to be a fearsome danger on their home offense.
Rookie Keegan Murray added 10 points for the locals and Sacramento exhibited fine shooting from the perimeter in the first quarter with a great 8 of 12 on 3-pointers, but the Warriors were not far behind and, with Wiggins leading (8 points), they reached the second period without losing too much ground (36-33).
Curry didn’t have a particularly brilliant first half (12 points with 3 turnovers) but Thompson, his inseparable teammate from the “Splash Brothers”, ignited before the break.
With three consecutive triples, the forward led a 0-12 run with which Golden State turned the game around.
Thompson landed in the intermission with 16 points -and three fouls-, Green did a bit of everything and everything was right (11 points and 4 rebounds) and Kevon Looney put his boots under the hoops (10 rebounds) for a Warriors who they marched to the locker room with an advantage (56-60) against some Kings who suddenly ran out of magic from the triple (0 of 9 in the second quarter).
Thompson’s fourth foul early in the third period set off alarm bells in Golden State.
To the rescue appeared Curry with 9 points, an omnipresent Green on both sides of the track and a Looney who only in that quarter captured 8 rebounds (4 of them in attack).
In addition, the local nightmare in the triples continued in that period (1 of 7), Fox was about to go to the street due to a double technique and the Kings faced the last quarter forced to come back (90-99).
A Curry layup set up a +12 for the visitors with 9 minutes left that seemed to leave the game very difficult for Sacramento.
But then an incandescent Monk version emerged, who would go on to sign 14 points in the last 12 minutes and put his team just one point with a whole world ahead (106-107 with 5.46 to go).
With the two teams unable to take control in a very tight denouement, Monk and Fox missed two 3-pointers in the final two minutes for the Kings while Wiggins faded away and Curry hit a crucial two plus one with just one left. 22 seconds sentenced the victory of the Warriors.
