By Jeremy Harness

OAKLAND–The Golden State Warriors gave the Kings a great chance to win Monday night, but that when the real Warriors eventually showed up, the Kings simply could not keep up.

Sacramento could not take advantage of a big night from Omri Casspi, and they ended up on the wrong end of a 122-103 beating at the hands of the Warriors at Oracle Arena.

In the early going, the Kings took advantage of some very sloppy basketball on the part of the Warriors, who committed highly-uncharacteristic turnovers and missed a high amount of shots that they usually knock down, while grabbing the lead for a great deal of the first half.

To do that, the Kings turned 18 Warriors turnovers into 21 points.

Sacramento did all of this despite the fact the DeMarcus Cousins committing three fouls in the first quarter alone and being forced to the bench.

That opened the door for Casspi, who caught fire and put the Kings in a great spot with a 20-point second quarter and making all of his seven shots, including six from behind the 3-point arc.

Casspi, meanwhile, finished the game with a career-high 34 points.

However, that seemed to ignite a scuffling Stephen Curry, who missed his first six shots of the game but scored 17 points in the final 3:16 of the second quarter to narrow the Kings’ lead to three.

While the Warriors slowly returned to its championship form, the Kings began to implode, starting from the first few minutes of the second half. At the point, Cousins picked up his fifth foul and was quickly whistled for a technical.

As he was given that infraction, he then went after one of the referees before being held back by Rudy Gay. Cousins was then hit with his second technical and an early trip to the locker room.

From that point, the Kings were suffocated by the Warriors’ improving defense, and they struggled to find open looks, and Golden State eventually got their transition game going, which they used to break the game open.