In a matchup of one young superteam and the superteam, the superteam came out on top, but by a squeak. The Kings failed to get a defensive rebound twice, leading to Klay Thompson getting the game-sealing basket. A deflected inbounds pass with 0.3 seconds remaining ended the way we didn’t want, but aren’t necessarily surprised about. Overall, it was still a fun back and forth matchup that didn’t go the Kings way.

The first quarter ended 29-28, with everything being a pretty even matchup. Klay Thompson didn’t have 37 points this quarter, which is good. He only had 12. Kevin Durant had five turnovers, which the Kings utilized to their advantage and took a lead later in the quarter. Their center, Damian Jones, was very productive against Willie Cauley-Stein, going for nine. For Sacramento, Buddy Hield led the way with nine points. Marvin Bagley came off the bench and scored eight, but forced a few shots and missed a dunk, resulting in 2-7 shooting. Troy Williams had a pretty eurostep for two and Justin Jackson ended the quarter with a late three.

The Kings had a 62-52 lead late in the second, but an 8-2 Golden State run brought that lead down to 64-60 to end the half. Iman Shumpert didn’t score in the first quarter, but came out with 11, with three threes. Bagley took his total to 12 and Hield went up to 14. De’Aaron Fox and Bogdan Bogdanovic didn’t produce much in the half, with both combining for seven points. Fox was 2/8 and Bogdan was 0/3 from the field. Thompson only scored two for the Warriors, while Durant scored 16 of his 19 in the quarter. Durant was 9/9 from the charity stripe.

Klay Thompson caught fire in the third quarter, taking his total up to 29. Durant also got his fair share of points in that quarter. The Warriors had a 13-2 run at one point to take the lead for Golden State. For the Kings, Fox and Bogi continued to struggle until late in the quarter, when Bogi made two threes. Bagley ended the quarter with a double-double of 17 points and 11 rebounds. Cauley-Stein continued to have a bad game, going up with fouls and worse shots that never went in. The Warriors ended the quarter with the lead going into the fourth.

The Kings took a 108-102 lead in the fourth quarter, but it was eventually wiped away due to another Golden State run to make the game 113-108. The Kings eventually came back to tie thanks to Hield, but they failed to get a defensive rebound twice and Thompson scored the game-sealing basket. The Kings had 0.3 seconds to get something off, but Shumpert’s inbound pass was deflected and that was game.

Best Players

Buddy Hield was the Kings best scorer today, going for 28 points on 12/21 shooting. He brought the Kings back in the game to tie late, but failed to score the possible game-winning layup with the left hand. He also had seven rebounds.

Marvin Bagley had 20 points and 17 rebounds. Yes, you read that right. 17 and seven of those were offensive rebounds. He forced some shots in the first half but collectively played a great game.

Willie Money Watch

Willie didn’t have a good game by any means. Nothing really went his way. He had four fouls. six points and four rebounds. He was 3-9 shooting and had some rough misses in the fourth quarter.

Notable Stats

Fox and Bogi combined for 6/23 shooting for 19 points, which is clearly not ideal. The Kings win if these two had better games, but it’s still good to see them losing by one with two of their best players not having a good game.

Harry Giles had a solid game, making some tough shots in the fourth. He scored 10 points and also had four assists. I was hoping he would have Cauley-Stein’s minutes in crunch time.

Nemanja Bjelica effect: One point, four rebounds and two assists in 19 minutes.

Kings outscored the Warriors 27-12 on the fast break.

The Game in One Sentence

Bagley is going to be special.

Next Game

The Kings play the Utah Jazz tomorrow at home at 5:00 PM PST. Donovan Mitchell is ruled OUT for this game.