NBA News Wire
Warriors 95, Kings 77
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Guard Stephen Curry scored 24 points, and the Golden State Warriors rode a decisive third-quarter spurt to a 95-77 victory that ruined the Sacramento Kings’ 30th season opener.
Curry and forwards Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green each scored five points during a 22-4 Golden State run that spanned six minutes of the third quarter and turned a close game into a one-sided affair. Seven Golden State players scored during the run, which turned a 54-51 deficit into a 73-58 lead.
Guard Klay Thompson finished with 19 points, forward Marreese Speights added 16, and the Warriors won their season opener for the third straight season. Golden State is coming off consecutive playoff appearances for the first time since the start of the 1992-93 campaign.
DeMarcus Cousins scored 20 points to lead Sacramento, which is coming off consecutive 28-54 campaigns. The Kings center made just four of 14 shots from the field but got to the free-throw line 18 times. He also had a game-high 11 rebounds.
Kings forward Rudy Gay added 14 points, and guard Darren Collison added 13 in his Sacramento debut.
The contest marked the start of the Kings’ 30th season in Sacramento, but the celebration of the milestone brought with it the end of a long streak. The Kings won the previous 13 season openers they played in Sacramento.
Sacramento took a 49-47 lead into halftime despite shooting just 31 percent from the field and falling behind 23-16 in the first quarter. The Kings knocked down 19 of 23 free throws and outrebounded Golden State 11-3 on the offensive end to overcome the early deficit.
Cousins, who last season became only the fourth Kings player to average at least 22 points and 11 rebounds per game, started slowly. He made only one of nine from the field but scored 12 points in the first half. He also made it through the opener without a technical foul; he tied for the NBA lead last year with 16.
The Warriors shot 44 percent from the field on the night, while the Kings finished at 30.8 percent.
NOTES: First-year Warriors coach Steve Kerr is the 25th coach in team history and the team’s 20th since relocating from Philadelphia in 1962. He was one of 26 players in the NBA to win five championships as a player (1996-98 Chicago Bulls; 1999, 2003 Spurs) but never had coached an NBA game. … Kings C DeMarcus Cousins entered the season with 33 technical fouls in the past two seasons, the most in the NBA. He never has had fewer than 12 in a season (2011-12). He picked up technical fouls in two of the first three exhibition games but none in the final four. … G Stephen Curry started his sixth straight opener for the Warriors, joining Jeff Mullins (1967-73), Rick Barry (1972-77), Chris Mullin (1986-92) and Latrell Sprewell (1992-97) as the only players in the team’s West Coast history to do so. … As expected, Kings F Rudy Gay played, three days after taking an elbow to the jaw in the team’s exhibition finale on Sunday. … Cousins and F Jason Thompson remain the only two Kings left since GM Pete D’Alessandro took over on June 17, 2013.
