OAKLAND -- A battle in the Bay. The Sacramento Kings aren’t backing down from anyone, including the World Champs.
It took everything the Warriors had to fend off the Kings Saturday evening at Oracle Arena. In the end, the two-man wrecking crew of Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson were just too much to overcome as the Warriors escaped with the 117-116 win.
Here are three takeaways as the Kings came up just short and dropped to 10-9 on the season.
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KD and Klay
The Warriors are without two of their top four players with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green out. They still run All-Stars Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson out on the floor, so it’s tough to call them “shorthanded.”
The duo crushed the Kings. Durant -- a difficult matchup for every team in the league -- finished with a game-high 44 points, 13 rebounds and seven assists.
Thompson was right behind him, hitting 12-of-26 from field for 31 points. Thompson’s rebound and putback with 5.8 seconds remaining gave Golden State the lead for good.
NBA
Buddy Buckets
Buddy Hield had no answer for Thompson for portions of the game, but the Warriors struggled to slow down the Kings’ starting shooting guard as well.
Hield led the Kings with 28 points on 12-for-21 shooting and chipped in seven rebounds and five assists. He needs to work on fighting through the screen, but his 12-point fourth quarter kept Sacramento in the game.
Double-double
It wasn’t always pretty, but Marvin Bagley posted his second career double-double. He came out aggressive from the moment he stepped on the court.
There were times when the rookie had tunnel vision, but he fought through the rough patches to finish with a huge night. Bagley tied his career-high in points with 20 on 7-of-14 shooting, and he crashed the glass for a career-high 17 rebounds.