About the only thing that worked for Sacramento in the first half was DeMarcus Cousins, who feasted inside among the Warriors big men. He scored 16 points to go with 9 rebounds and 3 assists in the first half. John Salmons also played well in the first, scoring 10 of his points in the 2nd quarter. The Kings offense was still playing very well despite shooting so poorly, and it was more the defense (or lack thereof) that allowed the Warriors to get out to a 10 point lead going into halftime.

The defensive issues weren't necessarily corrected out of halftime either, even though the game began to turn in the Kings favor during the third quarter. Instead, Sacramento simply turned its offense up yet another notch, outscoring Golden State 37 to 27 in the third to cut the lead down to just one point going into the final period.

Unfortunately, the defense regressed a bit from here on out, and the offense fell apart completely thanks to some costly mistakes. The Kings committed 15 turnovers in this game, and 5 of them occurred in the final two minutes. The first two were by Chuck Hayes, who threw a pass to a cutting DeMarcus Cousins, but the ball never got there thanks to the Warriors. The second was particularly bad, as Hayes simply threw the ball away with a pass to nobody on the wing. It's possible he thought Williams was going to be there and Williams wasn't there because he's been on the team for a whole two minutes and doesn't know any of the plays, but regardless, both Hayes and Williams left the game at that point as Smart went back to a smaller lineup.

Marcus Thornton got the ball up top for a wide open three pointer on the next possession, but he missed it. The Kings as a whole were terrible from deep, going just 1 of 15 despite a lot of good, open looks. John Salmons got the offensive rebound, but with his back to the basket, Klay Thompson came from behind and poked it out of his hands leading to yet another turnover. Thompson repaid the favor with a bad pass of his own, fortunate for the Kings because if it had connected, Lee would have snuck in backdoor for yet another layup.

Isaiah Thomas quickly took it back up court, blew right by Klay Thompson, and found the open lane for a layup to cut the lead to one with 42 seconds left. Thompson brought the ball up against Isaiah, but could not get by him, forcing Coach Mark Jackson to call a timeout and get his offense set up. The play was set up for David Lee to take it to the rim, but DeMarcus Cousins did a good job of staying in front of him, and ended up blocking the shot attempt out of bounds. Terrence Williams had come back in for Isaiah after the last timeout, and was once again tasked with guarding Klay Thompson. The Warriors had only 4 seconds to get a shot off, so they found Thompson in the corner, but his shot was blocked by Williams, who then streaked up court with Tyreke Evans. Williams fumbled the ball as he was trying to pass it to Tyreke, and the ball went out of bounds. I think Williams would have had better success simply trying to score himself, but for a guy trying to make the team, I can see why he wanted to defer it. Still, it was a turnover and there was only 15 seconds left in the game.

… Only to screw it up once more. Isaiah Thomas, so clutch all season, found himself trying to cross over and simply lost the dribble. It was a completely unforced turnover. The ball went out of bounds with 4 seconds left and the Kings slept on Richard Jefferson who streaked towards the hoop, where Lee found him for a dunk on a long inbounds pass.

The Kings still had a chance for overtime, but Tyreke Evans was surrounded by Warriors players and his 30 foot three pointer was short, giving Golden State a victory, and giving Golden State of Mind a migraine.

There is still a long way to go before this Kings team becomes good. Defense needs to become a focus of every player on the court, for 48 minutes. Every play counts, so don't take any plays off. We've taken baby steps to get there, but you'd be crazy to think we're anywhere close yet.

Sacramento will travel to Houston on Monday before coming back home on Wednesday. Hopefully they can learn a little bit from their mistakes the past couple nights.

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