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Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield shine against the Kings – NBC Sports Bay Area and California

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Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield shine against the Kings – NBC Sports Bay Area and California

SACRAMENTO – The last time the Warriors stepped onto Golden 1 Center Court, their season ended six months ago with a stunning loss to the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Play-In Tournament.

Revenge isn’t served in the preseason, but there were plenty of reasons for the Warriors to be pleased with their 122-112 victory over the Kings.

Buddy Hield, originally selected No. 6 overall by the Kings in 2016, scored a game-high 22 points. He shot a plus-13 in 19 minutes, made eight of his nine shot attempts and scored six of seven from three.

Up and down the roster, the Warriors lit up from distance and also took care of the ball. The Warriors made 21 more three-pointers than the Kings. They also provided 34 assists on 44 shots made and only turned the ball over 13 times.

DeMar DeRozan, the Kings’ offseason star, scored 15 points in 15 minutes in his debut with his new team, making all six of his shots.

Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ improvement to 2-0 in the preseason.

New starting five

Steve Kerr has said that this training camp and preseason is about finding the right combinations to see who fits together best. The first group he traveled to Hawaii with on Saturday was Steph Curry, De’Anthony Melton, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis. In the second game of the preseason, Kerr elected to trade Brandin Podziemski for Melton, and Kevon Looney replaced Jackson-Davis at center.

The starting eleven didn’t play together once throughout last season.

When Kerr went to the bench for the first time four days ago, the Warriors were down 17-12. The new-look starting lineup trailed 16-13 before Kerr made his first change Wednesday night, substituting Jackson-Davis for Looney. Curry tied the game seconds later with a 3-pointer.

Looney started the game with a mid-range jump shot and only took one more shot the rest of the game. Green scored 10 points to go with five assists, two rebounds and two turnovers in more than 16 minutes. Kuminga struggled with early foul trouble but showed off his improved jump shot with 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting, including 4 of 7 from beyond the arc. Podziemski dished out a game-high eight assists, also scored eight points, grabbed four rebounds and two steals.

Except for the first five minutes and 45 seconds of the first quarter, the starting lineup did not share the field the entire game.

Steph Show is coming to Sac

Even though he’s 36 years old and entering his 16th season, Curry might still get first-game jitters. Or maybe he was just having a bad day in Honolulu, when the all-time leading shooter shot 2 of 8 from the field and missed all four of his 3-point attempts in the preseason opener. Back in Northern California, Curry found his opportunity and gave the traveling Golden State fans plenty to cheer about.

Curry scored eight points in the first quarter and made all three of his shots, including two 3-pointers.

Curry scored another five points in the second quarter, giving him 13 for the night. Curry scored two of four in the quarter and made one of his three attempts from behind the 3-point line. In a little less than 16 minutes, Curry looked a lot more like himself than he did a few days earlier.

However, his minus-7 plus/minus was the lowest in the Warriors’ starting lineup. For the second straight day, he and Green did not play in the second half.

3-point parade

The Warriors dropped 48 3-pointers while hitting just 11 in their first preseason game. And Lindy Waters III had five of them.

During Kerr’s pregame media release, I asked the Warriors coach about the high number of threes, and here’s what he had to say: “I don’t necessarily have a number in mind. I want to do a lot of them, and I want them. “We have to be better in transition than we have been in recent years. We’re working hard to score 26th, 27th in the league two years in a row.

“Part of it is turnovers, part of it is that as a coaching staff we have to do a better job with our spacing. And then we would much rather have a three-pointer in midfield than a mid-range shot.” ​​I also like good mid-range shots. We’re trying to find the balance.

Kerr makes it a priority for his Warriors to fly, and they did in Sacramento. This time with much more success.

By halftime they had already made 27 three-pointers and made 15. In addition to Curry’s three three-pointers, Hield made all four of his attempts. Melton made three in the first half and Green and Kuminga also formed a pair each.

In the end they made 52 3-point attempts, i.e. 28, which corresponds to a rate of 53.8 percent. A total of 10 Warriors made three-pointers and eight of those players made more than one.

Her 28 3-pointers would have been a franchise record if it had been a regular season game.

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