Tonight was a prime reminder that Kings fans are still traumatized by Klay Thompson’s sharpshooting.
The Sacramento Kings closed out their second game of a back-to-back down the highway in San Francisco, falling to the Golden State Warriors 126-114 on Thursday night.
There were strong flashes of competitive prowess in this contest before the 20-point deficit, as Golden State’s high-IQ brand of basketball was a tall task for a this short-handed Sacramento squad. The lead was blown open by double digits in the first minutes of the quarter by the Splash Brothers as Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and the Dubs were able to coast with a comfortable lead for nearly four frames.
Thompson was white-hot, scoring 20 points in ten minutes giving Kings fans 2016 flashbacks. Success beyond the arc sealed Sacramento’s fate before halftime.
A hailing bright spot: still without De’Aaron Fox, the Kings were at the helm of Davion Mitchell – who looked to carry good habits over from Wednesday’s nights victory. Mitchell has thrived in the starting spot since Fox’s absence in the last six games managing to average double digits in scoring that we haven’t seen from Off Night in his rookie campaign.
Mitchell was one of the biggest catalysts for keeping the Kings on Warrior coat tails throughout the night, with 10 first-quarter points. He went for a career-high 26 points, eclipsing his 21-point outing vs. Golden State on October 24th.
Turnovers were excessive and at the offensive set-ups seemed careless in a performance all fo similar to the last time these two teams met. There’s a reason that this Golden State team is a top entity on defense league-white, as they applied the pressure from starters down to the third string. Sputtering offense while Thompson shined was a nail in the coffin, as the Kings couldn’t really recover despite a red herring comeback in the third quarter.
The lead ballooned again to 18-points in Golden State’s favor with minutes to go in the fourth, and despite Mitchell’s superb offensive display, the Kings fell short to a Western Conference giant.