SEATTLE -- Upon being introduced to a thunderous ovation, Kevin Durant ripped off his Warriors warm-up top to unveil a forest green Shawn Kemp throwback SuperSonics jersey, No. 40. The roar found an even higher level.
That’s the kind of night it was at KeyArena, home of the Sonics until they left for Oklahoma City in July 2008, shortly after Durant’s wonderful rookie season.
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The city of Seattle showed out Friday night. On a rainy evening, the building was packed, with courtside seats featuring the likes of Bill Russell, Gary Payton, Spencer Haywood, Sue Bird, Jamal Crawford, Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson and Robinson Cano.
The game of basketball was played, at least by the Warriors, who ran the Sacramento Kings off the floor, 122-94.
Here are three takeaways from an evening that Seattle will relish until it is granted another NBA team.
Klay Thompson is ready, right now
Golden State Warriors
Klay Thompson scored 19 points in the first quarter on 7-of-10 shooting, including 5-of-8 from beyond the arc. He scored 25 points in 16 first-half minutes.
He finished with 30 points on 10-of-15 shooting (6-of-10 from deep) in 23 minutes.
The production wasn’t restricted to long-distance shooting. Thompson even muscled in a ridiculously tough layup through an obvious hack by Kings big man Willie Cauley-Stein late in the half. The foul was called, but Thompson missed the free throw.
Thompson didn’t skimp on defense, either, as he was primarily responsible for Buddy Hield getting very few clean looks and being limited to 3-of-12 shooting from the field.
Damian Jones and his incredible jam
Damian Jones started at center and did a lot of solid work. He scored seven points on 3-of-6 shooting and made his only free throw, a shot with which he has struggled. He also grabbed seven rebounds, blocked two shots -- including an emphatic smothering over a Marvin Bagley III shot at the rim -- and generally looked ready for the role of JaVale McGee 2.0, a potentially improved version.
But it was a play Jones made with 5:03 left in the third quarter that shocked the house, bringing the sellout crowd (17,074) to its feet and sending his teammates on the bench into a series of spasms.
Durant (who had 26 points) got around a Jones pick of Justin Jackson at the arc, driving into the paint as Jones rolled to the hoop. Durant lobbed a pass maybe three feet wide of the rim. Jones grabbed it with his right hand and blistered it through the net, giving the Warriors a 94-55 lead.
It was enough to bring DeMarcus Cousins, sitting along the baseline, to his feet and ignore his rehabbing Achilles’ heel long enough to dance and wave his arms in the “it’s over” gesture commonly reserved for Slam Dunk Contest in All-Star Weekend.
If Jones didn’t realize what he had done, Cousins made sure he knew during the next break, meeting Jones with a chest bump that forced a grin out of the young center.
More of those fizzling bombs
After shooting 2-of-17 from beyond the arc in the preseason opener last Saturday, the reserves didn’t do much better six days later.
They went 2-of-14 from deep, numbers in stark contrast to the 9-of-17 shooting performance of the starters.
Andre Iguodala was able to bury one of his two attempts from beyond the 3-point line. Kendrick Nunn was 1-of-4, Quinn Cook 0-of-4, Jordan Bell 0-of-1, Jonas Jerebko 0-of-1, Alfonzo McKinnie 0-of-1 and Jacob Evans III 0-of-1.
The Warriors’ bench finished with a 51-51 tie with the Kings' reserves.