NBA preseason: Steph Curry and Buddy Hield lead the Warriors past the Kings

If the preseason is any indicator of the regular season, then it should be a pretty entertaining year for the Golden State Warriors. After relying on the theatrics of a Lindy Waters III buzzer in their opening game against the LA Clippers on Saturday, the Warriors used a high-octane offensive attack to defeat the Sacramento Kings and win 122 in their second game of the preseason on Wednesday night -112.

We’ve talked a lot in recent days about the Warriors wanting to be a bigger threat behind the line, even after Klay Thompson’s departure. And on Wednesday, those words were backed up by actions.

The Dubs made an incredible 52 three-point attempts against the Kings, compared to just 30 shots from inside. But they didn’t vomit them up willingly; They almost all looked good, as evidenced by the fact that they made 53.8% of them.

It took Golden State a few minutes to find their rhythm as they tried out a new starting lineup of Steph Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney (Andrew Wiggins remains sidelined). Sacramento’s athletic lineup — led by freshman DeMar DeRozan, who shot a perfect 6-for-6 en route to 15 points — broke down the Warriors’ defense in the early going and prevented Golden State from finding much rhythm on either side.

But after the Subs took over, the Dubs started clicking and they went on a run, ending the quarter with a 31-27 lead.

Then the threesomes really started to rain. While DeRozan was splitting up the Warriors early in the second quarter, Curry started to take off and everything started falling into place. It was three after three after three…you know things are going well when Green makes two threes in a single quarter! No one shone brighter than Buddy Hield, who closed the half with a perfect 4-for-4 from distance. But despite all that, a late run by the Kings gave Sacramento a 68-66 halftime lead.

Curry, Green and Looney saw their nights come to an end at halftime, but the second half starting quintet of Hield, Kuminga, Podziemski, Moses Moody and Trayce Jackson-Davis played with life and energy and quickly built a seven-point lead. And then there was a violent three-way storm from almost everyone in the squad. With less than two minutes left, the Warriors had built a 12-point lead and would take a 100-91 lead heading into the final frame.

From then on, it looked like the Dubs would pull out a win, but the Sacramento bench had other plans. The Kings made a serious push about halfway through the quarter, prompting Steve Kerr to call a timeout at 5:28 with the lead at just 109-106.

But the time out worked. The Warriors escaped with a 13-0 run to secure the win and keep their preseason undefeated streak intact.

Hield absolutely shined and showed what he can bring to this offense, scoring 22 points on absurdly efficient 8-for-9 shooting, including a 6-for-7 shot from long range. Newcomer De’Anthony Melton also seemed incredibly comfortable in Golden State’s system, dropping 16 points on 6-for-12 shooting (4-for-9 from deep), with five rebounds and three assists. Kuminga also had 16 points, shooting 6 of 11 and 4 of 7 from distance, while Curry added an efficient 13 points and Green added 10 points with five assists. Podziemski filled in many different stat columns, as we saw most of last season, finishing with eight points, four rebounds, eight assists and two steals. Jackson-Davis was a team-best +22 and also recorded eight points and six rebounds.

The Warriors are back in action on Friday night when they play a rematch against the Kings. You can watch this game at 7:00 pm PT on NBC Sports Bay Area and NBA TV.