Category: NBA

The Warriors have their hands full with the Suns,prevail in the fourth quarter.

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by Jerry Feitelberg

Oakland- The Golden State Warriors needed a strong performance by Klay Thompson to down the young and hungry Phoenix Suns 133-120 Sunday night at the Oracle Arena.The Warriors, who had a hard time beating the Suns in Phoenix on October 30th, had another tough time subduing the Suns coached by Earl Watson.

The Suns fell behind early in the first quarter 12-7. They then went on an 11-0 run and led by seven 30-23 with 1:30 left in the period. The Dubs defense played better, and they closed the gap to two, but the Warriors committed a shooting foul with just 1/2 second left on the clock. The Suns made the two free throws and led by four 32-28.

It was more of the same in the second quarter. The Dubs led by three 62-59 at the end of the first half. Phoenix continued to play well, and the Warriors could not put them away. The Warriors did increase the lead to seven at the end of the third period, but the Suns took it to them and led the Dubs 111-106 with 6:15 left to play. The Warriors woke up on offense and defense. Klay Thompson scored eighteen of his thirty points in the quarter and the Warriors defense, led by Draymond Green, was able to keep the Suns under control. The Dubs win 130-122.

The Warriors were led by Klay Thompson, Steph Curry with 30 points, six assists, and six rebounds. Kevin Durant added twenty-nine, and he had five assists and nine boards. Mr. defense, Draymond Green, had a double-double. He scored fourteen points, eleven assists, and seven rebounds. The Suns had six players in double figures. Eric Bledsoe and T.J.Warren each scored twenty. Devin Booker added nineteen; Jared Dudley had fourteen, Brandon Knight pitched in with 10. Former Warrior, and a very popular player when he was here, Leandro Barbosa knocked down eleven. The Warriors honored their former player with a video tribute during a timeout in the first quarter. The fans gave Barbosa a standing ovation, and he waved back to the crowd.

After the game, coach Steve Kerr said:”We’re trying to win a championship, you don’t do that simply by outscoring people.” “We set a bad tone on defense from the beginning.” “They (the Suns) played a really good game.” “We did not do a good job defensively.Gotta play better.”

The Warriors improve to 8-2, and the Suns fall to 3-8. The Warriors start a four-game eastern trip starting Wednesday in Toronto against the Raptors. Friday night they meet the Boston Celtics then play a back-to-back game Saturday night against the Milwaukee Bucks. If you remembered last year, the Dubs had a very tough victory against the Celtics to keep their winning streak alive. They then went to Milwaukee, and the Bucks beat them snapping their 24-game winning streak. Let’s hope history doesn’t repeat itself.

 

 

 

 

A battle royal in Portland:Kings lose to Trail Blazers 122-120 in OT

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

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Photo credit: Craig Mitchelldyer, AP Photo

by Charlie O. Mallonee

We spit on your statistics about back-to-back games in the NBA

The statisticians, experts, journalists and oddsmakers all had written off the Sacramento Kings as having any chance to defeat the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night in the Rose City:

  • The Kings had suffered a devastating loss to the Lakers 101-91 on Thursday night in Sacramento
  •  The game in Portland was the back end of a back-to-back home/road set with the average chances to win the game at 37.3-percent historically
  • The Trail Blazers are seen as a more talented team than the Kings and are expected to make the playoffs and possibly go on to the second round while Sacramento is expected to be in the Draft Lottery … again
  • The game in Portland would be the Kings 11th contest in 17 days and the team needs a break to rest and recoup
  • Sacramento entered the game a 6.5 to 9-point underdog

What no counted on was the Kings forgot to read the script before the game and they came to play. Somehow they survived a first half that ended with the Blazers leading 62-57 and came out ready to to battle in the second half despite all of the odds being against them.

The Kings rode the play of Cousins, Gay, Koufos, Afflalo and Collison in the second half to outscore the Blazers 49-44 to force the game into overtime.

The teams tied the game up five times in the five-minute overtime session. With the Blazers up by two points with 14.3 seconds to play, Cousins missed a 26-foot jump and Rudy Gay missed a 16-foot desperation turnaround fadeaway shot with one-tenth of a second left on the clock. When the horn sounded, Portland had won the game 122-120 but they knew they had been in a battle royal.

Cousins was a different player on Friday night

Cousins put his inconsistent Thursday night performance behind him to lead the Kings in scoring with 33 points to go with nine rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots and one steal. Cousins did all of this after being assessed a technical foul in the first quarter for exchanging shoves with Meyers Leonard. Cousins knew his limitations and worked with them of Friday night.

Rudy Gay is proving to everyone that he is worth the new NBA pay scale

Gay may have given notice that he plans to opt out of the last year of his contract with the Kings but he is not playing like a man who does not care. In fact, it is just the opposite. Rudy Gay is giving it his all on the court every night and not in a selfish way.

Against Portland, he posted a double-double scoring 29 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Gay also added three assists, two steals and one block. He shot 50-percent from the floor (9-for-18) including going 2-for-4 from 3-point range. Gay went 9-for-10 from the free throw line.

If Vivek Ranadive and Vlade Divac are serious about building a contender, they need to get out the checkbook and get ready to start participating in the bidding war for one Rudy Gay.

Has there been a changing of the guard?

The man on the point who made it happen on Friday night for the Kings was Darren Collison. Collison played almost 40 minutes scoring 20 points while dishing out four assists and hauling in five rebounds.

The Kings starting point guard Ty Lawson played just 15 minutes and had four assists. That is not to imply Lawson has become obsolete but most observers felt that Collison would establish himself as the number one point guard at sometime after his return. It appears Collison decided he would declare himself number one a little sooner than anyone expected.

Ty Lawson will not be going anywhere. He still has a very vital role to play for this Kings team. Look to see more sets with Lawson and Collison on the floor together in a “small ball line up”.

Head Coach Dave Joerger’s thoughts on the game

  • Our team played hard
  • We were playing on fumes – 11 games in 17 days
  • Turnovers were catastrophic – 15 that resulted in 25 Trail Blazer points
  • Portland’s guards were fantastic – starters Lillard and McCollum combined for 67 points
  • Rudy (Gay) and Cuz (Cousins) gave their all on the court at all times in the game
  • It was a fun basketball game
  • Our group is resilient – they can take a punch – they don’t go away
  • He’s (Cousins) engaged – he’s all in

What’s coming up for the Kings

Thankfully for the Kings after the brutal 11 games in 17 days schedule they have four days off. There will be some practice/shoot-arounds, but they will also be lots of rest on the agenda.

The Kings next game will be on Wednesday night at the Golden 1 Center when the San Antonio Spurs come back to town. The Kings will have four more home games before heading back out on the road.

Hello Biggest Little City in the World

Three of the Kings rookie players have been assigned to the Reno Bighorns of the NBA D-League. Skal Labissiere, Georgios Papagiannis and Malachi Richardson will be playing with the Bighorns.

The fact is these young players would not be seeing any significant playing time in Sacramento. The second fact is they need significant playing time to prepare for the NBA. The solution is to play significant minutes in the D-League.

Do not expect to see the players move from Reno to Sacramento often unless they are needed to cover a roster spot because of an injury to an active player.

We will keep you up to date on their progress in the D-League on a weekly basis.

 

Game Preview: Kings go back at it in Portland on Friday night

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

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by Charlie O. Mallonee

Kings have no time to rest as it’s time to finish a back-to-back

The NBA schedule can be a very cruel mistress when comes to needing to respond to a devastating loss like the Kings had at the hands of the upstart LA Lakers on Thursday night in Sacramento. In this case, they have to head out on the road to Portland to finish a back-to-back schedule with Trail Blazers (5-4).

Percentages on back-to-backs aren’t good

  • About 32-percent of the back-to-back games in the NBA are home/road sets like the Kings have with the Lakers last night in Sacramento and the Trail Blazers in Portland tonight.
  • The average winning percentages for the visiting team in the second game on the road is 37.3-percent. The visiting team is usually given about a 40-percent chance of winning on the road in the NBA, so the chances of winning are lower. Of course, there are many variables that play into those figures.
  • FiveThirtyEight.com (I use them because they have no gambling establishment interest to please) projects the Kings have only an 18-percent chance of pulling off a win tonight over the Blazers. The fact that it is the back end of a back-to-back set on the road versus a team that has a 74-percent chance of making the playoffs  has a lot do with the prediction

Blazers are coming off a loss

Portland lost to the Clippers in Los Angeles on Wednesday night 111-80. LAC led by 20 after the first quarter and led by as many as 48 points in the second half. Damian Lillard was held to eight points shooting just 1-for-10 and hitting no 3-pointers in the game. If Lillard has a bad game, the Blazers are going to have a bad game.

This is a Tier 3 team visiting a Tier 2 team

Sacramento is a Tier 3 team – they will not make the playoffs and will be in the 2017 Draft Lottery. The Trail Blazers are a Tier 2 team – there is a high probability they will make the playoffs and may possibly go to the second round.

Who to watch in tonight’s game

For the Kings, you have to focus on DeMarcus Cousins. The big man scored no points in the third quarter of last night’s game with the Lakers and that is when the contest got away from the Kings. Sacramento needs Cousins to come out energized and ready to be productive in all four quarters if they are to have any chance against the Blazers.

It is really a one-man watch for Portland. Damian Lillard needs to comeback and take charge in this game versus the Kings. He averages 30 points per game. The Blazers must have that scoring production from their star guard or it could be a long night.

For entertainment purposes only

The prognosticators have made the Trail Blazers the favorites in this game minus 6.5 to 9 points (FiveThirtyEight.com calls the -9 & remember they are not tied to a book). The over/under ranges from 208 to 208.5. The Kings need that number to be at 196 to 200 to really be competitive in this game.

Youth was served in Sacramento: Lakers surprise Kings 101-91

Published on by Charlie O. MalloneeLeave a comment

 

lat-lakers-kings-wre0044530517-20161110Photo Credit: Rich Pedrocelli AP Photo

by Charlie O. Mallonee

This should have been a Kings win

All of the prognosticators predicted that the Kings would beat the Lakers in Sacramento on Thursday night. FiveThirtyEight.com said the Kings had a 70-percent chance of winning the game on their home court. The Kings had won two consecutive games playing strong defense in both games. The win on Sunday in Toronto was one of the best wins the Kings had experienced in some time.

Momentum did seem to be on the side of the Kings. Not only were they playing well but their opponent was a young team that in the opinion of most has been playing  above their heads most of the season. Everyone expected new head coach Luke Walton to make a difference with the Lakers. No one expected him to make this much of a difference.

The game the Kings (4-6) should have won they lost 101-91 to upstart Los Angeles Lakers (5-4).

The Kings were in control in the first half

Sacramento came out the gate on fire. The Kings hit on 4-of-7 three -point opportunities. DeMarcus Cousins scored 10 points while Rudy Gay added six. The team outscored the Lakers 30-16 in the first quarter and Sacramento looked to be in full control of the game.

In the second quarter, the Kings extended their lead to 19 and appeared ready to turn the nationally televised contest into a “laugher”. The problem for the Kings was the Lakers forgot to rollover and play dead. Los Angeles stepped up and shot 61.1-percent (11-for-18) from the floor and outscored the Sacramento 29-25 in the period behind the solid play of Julius Randle and Lou Williams scoring punch coming off the bench.

At the half, the Kings held a 10-point lead over the Lakers 55-45.

In the third quarter things just got weird 

The Lakers came out of halftime and played with determination. They kept chipping away at the Kings lead cutting it to as little as five points before the Kings opened it back up to a 10 point lead again, but the Lakers went on a 7-0 run to tighten up the game. When the horn sounded to end the third period, Los Angeles trailed the Kings by just three points, 73-70.

Now here comes the weird part. I glanced over to the stats monitor and looked at the line for DeMarcus Cousins and it showed he had 18 points in the game. I then looked again and checked my notes. Everything was correct. Cousins had spent 10 minutes on the floor, shot 0-for-4 from the field and had scored zero points. A struggling team like the Kings cannot have its number one scorer held scoreless for entire quarter and expect to win a game.

Everything just fell apart in the fourth quarter

The Lakers sensed that victory was theirs if they attacked hard right from the beginning of the fourth quarter and attack they did. Lou Williams led the way scoring 13 points in period. The Lakers outscored the Kings 31-18 in the final quarter even with Cousins returning to form and putting up 10 points.

The Lakers shot 62.5-percent (10-for-16) from the floor in the fourth quarter. The went 9-for-11 from free throw line. LA out-rebounded Sacramento 14-9 in the last period.

The Kings shot just 22.7-percent (5-for-22) from the field in the fourth. The went 2-for-8 from beyond the 3-point arc. The Kings were just unable to find a final burst of energy to will themselves back into the game.

Take me to your leader

The Lakers had five players (four starters) finish scoring in double figures. Lou Williams was their leading scorers with 21 points. Julius Randle was their top rebounder with eight. Randle and Clarkson tied for the lead in assist with five each.

DeMarcus Cousins finished with 28 points and nine rebounds to lead the Kings in both categories. Darren Collison led the team with nine assists.

Luke Walton on why the Lakers defense improved in the second half

“We competed. The first half, we give them credit, they were making shots, but we were letting them swing the ball side-to-side. It happens every time we play defense like that. It happened in the Dallas game. We let people get comfortable at this level, they’re going to make shots. In the second half, I felt like we did a much better job of being physical, not letting them move the ball freely, making plays, being aggressive and that’s when we’re at our best.”

Kings head coach Dave Joerger’s views on the game

“Well tonight was a tough night. I thought it was a good first half. We didn’t finish as strong as we needed to. We had a chance to keep the lead at 14-15 and didn’t go into the locker room feeling great at halftime.”

“We did a lot of positive things in the first half. Second half we didn’t make any shots. Our defense was just on the run the whole night and they made shots. I think at the end of the day it came down to who made the shots.”

“I thought we got a ton of looks. Rudy (Gay), DeMarcus (Cousins) – everybody played hard. They had some tougher nights offensively and we’ve got to be able to find some scoring from other places on nights that sometimes the ball goes in, sometimes it doesn’t.

What’s up next on the schedule

The Kings will have no time to lick their wounds and reflect on this loss as they must jump back into action on Friday night in Portland against the Trail Blazers (5-4) for the second game of a back-to-back, home and on-the-road schedule.

The Lakers head to New Orleans where they will play the 1-8 Pelicans on Saturday night.

The Warriors dominate the Nuggets in Denver

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by Jerry Feitelberg

Denver- The Golden State Warriors played well all four quarters of Thursday night’s game in Denver and defeated the young Denver Nuggets 125-101. The Warriors excelled on offense and defense.The Dubs put the pedal to the metal and they did not let up all night long. They Looked like the potent force that everyone expects them to be and they did it for all four quarters. Steph Curry did his work  in just three-quarters of play. Steph tallied thirty-three points. He had seven assists and five rebounds. Steph scored fifteen in the third quarter alone and made seven 3-point shots in the game. The Dubs led by twenty-four at the end of three and Steph sat out the rest of night. The Nuggets entered the game with a record of 3-4 under coach Mike Malone. The Warriors expected to have a tough night as the Nuggets had two 7-foot players, Jusuf Nurkic and Nikita Jokic, in their starting lineup. The Nuggets entered the game leading the league in rebounding. The Warriors’ centers met the challenge.

The Nuggets last lead occurred in the first quarter when they were ahead 6-3. The Warriors went on a 17-2 run to take the lead for good. They led 38-19 at the end of the first quarter. Steph had fourteen in the period. The big story was the play of JaVale Mcgee. McGee entered the game after Zaza Pachulia picked up two quick fouls. Draymond Green added eight points and had two assists and two rebounds in the first twelve minutes of the contest.

The Warriors continued to assert themselves and showed everyone ow good they could be. Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, David West and Shaun Livingston all contributed as the Warriors finished the half leading 65-51. The Nuggets closed the gap near the end of the half, but the Warriors were in complete control.

Steph took command in the third period as he netted fifteen points. He made four 3-pointers and seven for the game.  The Warriors led by thirty-one 97-66 late in the third quarter. Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson played in the fourth quarter, but they came out when the issue was well in hand about halfway through the final stanza. The Warriors win 125-101.

Game Notes- Kevin Durant’s seventy-two consecutive game streak of scoring at least twenty points ended as Durant left with eighteen. Durant had five assists and nine rebounds. Draymond added thirteen, and he also had five assists and nine boards. The Big news was the combined play of Zazu Pachulia, David West, and Javale McGee. They put in a total of nineteen from the center position. McGee had ten, and the play of the big men negated the Nuggets’ Twin Towers. Five Nuggets scored double figures. Rookie Jamal Murray led them with fourteen. The Dubs shot 54.1% from the floor. They made fourteen 3-point shots in thirty attempts for a percentage of 46.7%. The Dubs had forty-four rebounds to tie the Nuggets in that department. The Warriors defense had fifteen steals and six blocked shots in the win. The Warriors improve to 7-2, and the Nuggets drop to 3-5. The Warriors played their ninety-fifth consecutive game without back-to-back losses.

The Warriors return home to face the Phoenix Suns Sunday afternoon at Oracle Arena.at 5 pm PT.

The Warriors roll over the depleted Mavericks 116-95

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by Jerry Feitelberg

Oakland- The Golden State Warriors beat the Dallas Mavericks 116-95 at the Oracle Arena Wednesday night. Former Warrior starters Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut returned to the Bay Area for the first time since they left the club after last season. Both players received a very warm welcome from the fans when they were introduced before the start of the game. Barnes played and scored twenty-five points for Dallas, but Bogut did not play at all. In fact, Dirk Nowitzki sat out the game as well as guards Wesley Matthews and Deron Williams.

The Warriors played a terrific first half. The only time the Dubs didn’t lead was early in the first quarter when the game was tied at seven. Klay Thompson, who had been in a shooting slump, was on fire. He scored eighteen points in the first twelve minutes of play. He had four three-point shots and two buckets for his eighteen. Kevin Durant hit two three-point shots as did Draymond Green. The Dubs led by nineteen 34-15 after one period of play.

The Warriors remained hot in the second stanza as their defense continued to shut down the Dallas attack. In the meantime, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, and Draymond Green led the relentless Warrior offense, and the Dubs led at the half by thirty-three points 67-34.

The third quarter, however, was a different story. The Mavericks went on a 25-9 run while the Warriors went to sleep. Steph Curry twisted his right ankle early in the third quarter and went to the locker room for treatment. He would return later. The Dubs were three-for-eleven from the floor with eight minutes played. They got back on track when Steph returned and led by sixteen 84-68 at the end of three. Steph took over in the fourth period and the Dubs led by twenty-three 103-80. Kevin Durant also played very well in the win. Steve Kerr inserted his bench players Kevon Looney, Patrick McCaw, J’Vale McGee, and Ian Clark to play against the Mavs’ bench players.

Kevin Durant led Golden State with 28 points and ten rebounds. Steph had 24 and six assists. Draymond Green had sixteen points, four assists, and ten boards. The Warriors shot 58.1% from the floor and made 17 three-point shots. They shot  51.5% from behind the arc. The Warriors moved the ball well as they had thirty-three assists in the game. The Mavs leading scorers were Harrison Barnes(25), 7Justin Anderson(16, seven assists and 8 rebounds), Dwight Powell(14points,9 boards). The Mavs shot 39.5% from the floor and just 21.9% on three-point shots.

The Warriors improve to 6-2 for the season and Dallas falls to 2-6. Mavs’ owner, Mark Cuban was in attendance at the Arena Wednesday night.
The Warriors play a back-to-back game Thursday night against the Denver Nuggets in Denver. Game time will be at 6:30pm PT.

 

Role players ignite Kings

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By Jeremy Harness

AP photo: The Sacramento Kings DeMarcus Cousins (15) drives to the basket past the New Orleans Pelicans Terrance Jones (left) and Omer Asik (3) in the second half of Tuesday night’s game at Golden 1 Center

SACRAMENTO – In discussing his role with the Kings, Willie Cauley-Stein also painted a vivid picture of a team trying to find its way in the NBA.

“You’ve just got to play through adversity, and you can tell what type of player you are when you go through something like that,” Cauley-Stein said. You can either go the negative route and say, ‘(Expletive) it, I’m not with this, I’m just going to go into a shell,” or you can say, ‘I’m going to prove myself, I’m going to come out of this hole.

“That’s what kind of mindset I’m going through. I’ve got to force them to let them know that I’m here, that I’m trying to win like the rest of us. When I go in, I’m drawing blood.”

He certainly did that in Tuesday night’s 102-94 win over the still-winless New Orleans Pelicans at the Golden1 Center, scoring nine points to go with three rebounds as well as blocking three shots, all of this while playing only 12 minutes.

After dropping four straight, the Kings, who never trailed against the Pelicans, have now won two consecutive games. In addition, the Kings will spend the next couple of weeks breaking in their brand-new arena, as six of their next seven games are going to be at home.

Arron Afflalo is another King whose role has been known to fluctuate during his NBA career, but he also spearheaded his team’s surge past New Orleans in the game’s final moments. The Pelicans had closed the gap to five points, but Afflalo converted a four-point play with 45.2 seconds left to give the Kings enough cushion to send the home fans happy.

“For me, it’s trying to adjust to how to be efficient, and not get frustrated by lack of rhythm, and just try to play through it to help my team,” Afflalo said. “I can’t really come into the game with expectations, because there might be a game where I get 15, 20 shots, and there might be a game where I get five shots.

“My goal is to make the best out of it.”

DeMarcus Cousins won’t have to worry about having his role diminish at any point. The All-Star center led the Kings with 28 points on 11-of-20 shooting. He also pulled down four rebounds to go along with four assists, a pair of steals and two blocked shots.

Rudy Gay, who struggled with his shot early on, got things going in the second half and finished with 21 points while making seven of his 16 shots.

Pelicans star Anthony Davis led all scorers with 34 points while E’Twaun Moore added 13 of his own. Rookie Buddy Hield had 14 points for New Orleans, but he struggled from the field for most of the night, as the majority of his scoring came in the final minute as the Kings were simply trying to run down the clock and were intent on not fouling.

Meanwhile, the Kings welcomed back point guard Darren Collison, who was suspended for the first eight games of this season due to a domestic-abuse case against him.

He began to put his handprints on the game in the second half, hitting his first shot of the season late in the third quarter with a 3-pointer from the right wing and followed that up moments later with another basket. He finished with nine points along with four assists and a pair of steals.

NOTES: In a bit of a weird twist of events, the two teams went into the locker room for halftime and came out for the start of the second half, only to find out that the officials had put 20 seconds back on the clock.

As a result, the teams played the remainder of the first half and then quickly switched baskets afterwards.

 

That’ Amaury’s Podcast, News and Commentary: Can Cuban keep ban on ESPN writers?; Who will be the NL manager of the year?

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AP file photo: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban watches his team warm up during the first round of the NBA playoffs against the Oklahoma City Thunder last April 16th has said that two ESPN writers will remained banned from covering the team’s home games

On Amaury’s podcast:

#1 Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has banned two ESPN writers from covering any Mavericks games. ESPN had asked NBA Commissioner Adam Silver tried work things out between Cuban and ESPN but Cuban who did allow ESPN to cover just their home opener is sticking to his guns and will keep the ban going and will not allow the ESPN writers to attend Mavs home games as Cuban said that if ESPN can not cover all the Mavs home games than they can’t cover them at all.

#2 Also Amaury goes over his picks for the National League manager of the year who will it be? Dusty Baker Washington Nationals, Joe Maddon Chicago Cubs, or Dave Roberts Los Angeles Dodgers?

#3 The New York Mets Yoenis Cespedes will not be returning to the Mets. Cespedes has voided his contract and will seek free agency and a bigger contract for the 2017 season.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV talent for the Angels and the Spanish radio talent for the A’s and does News and Commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Sacramento Kings podcast with Charlie O: Kings have three of next four at Golden 1 hope to at least split

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AP file photo: Sacramento Kings Jordan Farmar (20) watches the Los Angeles Lakers Yi Jianlian (11) reach for a pass during Thu Oct 13th’s game at

On Sacramento Kings podcast with Charlie O:

#1 The Kings just finished a five game road trip that should be titled the “Angry and the Ecstasy” Charlie will tell you why.

#2. What’s up with Jordan Farmar? Now you see him and now you don’t.

#3 Darren Collison could return tonight what impact will that have on the Kings?

#4 Also what’s coming up for the Kings and some the games previewed coming up for Sacramento

Steph Curry sets a NBA record as the Dubs slip past the Pelicans

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by Jerry Feitelberg

Oakland- Steph Curry led the Dubs to victory over the New Orleans Pelicans 116-106 Monday night at Oracle Arena, As usual, the Dubs got off to a slow start. The Pelicans held the lead for most of the first period until Steph hit a three-pointer to tie the game at seventeen. Steph hit his third three-pointer to put Golden State ahead 22-19. The Dubs finished the quarter leading 28-24. Steph made three-threes.

The Warriors played extremely well in the second quarter. They ran, they shot, they scored, they played defense, and they rebounded. At one point, they went on a 26-5 run to take twenty-one point lead. However, the Pelicans refused to fold, and they cut the lead to fourteen as they trailed 63-49 at the half. Steph led the Dubs with twenty-three. Klay Thompson added fifteen, and Kevin Durant chipped in with thirteen. Anthony Davis led the Pelicans with fifteen. The Pelicans’ bench outscored the Warriors’ bench 22-8. The Dubs shot 53.2% from the floor, and they made eight three-point shots in nineteen attempts. They also scored nineteen fastbreak points in the half.

The third period was an entirely different story. The Dubs went to sleep for almost eight minutes in the third quarter. The Pelicans went on a 19-4 run to take the lead 73-72. The Pelicans, at this point, outshot, outran and outrebounded the Warriors. However, the two-time MVP took over and led the Dubs on a 12-5 run to give them a six-point lead 84-78 at the end of three. At his juncture in the contest, Steph had made ten three-point shots.

The Pelicans refused to quit, and the Dubs had to play well if they wanted to win. Kevin Durant, who did not score a lot in the first three periods of play, came to life and made a couple of key buckets. Steph made three more three-point shots leading Golden State to victory. Steph tied the record of twelve held by Kobe Bryant and Donyell Marshall when he hit a three to put the Dubs ahead 106-97. He broke the record on his next shot to increase the lead to twelve 109-97. The Pelicans could not catch up as the Dubs’s defense was strong in the final stanza of the game.

Game Notes- With the win, the Dubs are now 5-2 for the season. They are in second place just one game behind the LA Clippers. As mentioned earlier, Steph Curry set an NBA record with thirteen threes in the game. It was quite a turnaround as he failed to make a single three-point shot in ten attempts last Friday night in Los Angeles. Steph scored over forty points for the third time in his career against New Orleans. Steph finished the night with forty-six. Klay added 24 and Kevin Durant scored 22. Durant has now scored at least twenty points in 71 consecutive games. Draymond Green was outstanding on defense. He scored just two points but he had eleven assists and twelve rebounds. Anthony Davis led the Pelicans with thirty-three. E’Twaun Moore had fifteen and Tim Frazier knocked thirteen to go along with his ten assists. The Pelicans, under former Warrior assistant coach, Alvin Gentry fall to 0-7. The Pelicans are missing several key players and hope to get on the winning track when they return.

Warriors’ coach Steve Kerr had this to say about Steph. “Quite a show. Not at all surprising. He comes right back after a bad game and lights it up. I didn’t realize he set the record until I got into the locker room.” Kerr , when talking about the team, remarked ” I liked the effort off the bench. I liked 35 assists. It’s a good number.I thought it was a good win and we’ll get better from this. We’ve got to do a better job of putting it all together” Kerr, responding to a question about Draymond Green said” He’s playing as well as he has in past years. The box score is going to look a little different.” Green’s scoring is down and Draymond responded ” I still approach the game this way. If I’m open, I shoot. I attack, mke plays and rebound. Our offense is different. We got a lot of guys that score with the basketball.”

The Warriors entertain the Dallas Mavericks at the Oracle Arena Wednesday night at 7:30 pm. Former Warrior players Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut will make their first appearences against their former teammates since leaving the club at the end of last season.