By George Devine, Sr.

A basketball-hungry crowd ended its offseason famine by coming in large numbers to Oracle Arena in Oakland to see the Sacramento Kings in preseason against the Golden State Warriors. The home team won, 94-81, but the Kings showed promise for the coming season.
Sacramento was off to a quick start, and led 26-21 after the first quarter, even with a 13-3 run for Golden State in that period. But when it came down to endurance late in the game, the Warriors lunged ahead and stayed there.
Klay Thompson had 17 points and four boards. He was 8 for 17 from the floor. He is a veteran of last year’s team that won 47 games and went to the playoffs, along with Harrison Barnes, Steph Curry, David Lee and Andrew Bogut. That was tough competition for the Kings and made for an exciting game.
For the visitors Isaiah Thomas had 15 points and six boards. DeMarcus Cousins had nine and four, respectively; it has just been announced that he has signed a lucrative multi-year extension with the team.
For Sacramento fans, it was enough to see their team stay, after a pitched battle– reported by Sports Radio Service’s Ken Gimblin — that prevented the team from moving to Seattle. The new organization has two Warrior standbys in place: former assistant coach Mike Malone heads up the Kings, with his dad as an assistant, and Warrior legend Chris Mullin is a consultant. As the season progresses, the fans will expect more and the talent indicates they will see more.

The Kings next play the Lakers at Los Angeles on Thursday, October 10 at 7:00 p.m. PDT.