Update: 10 pm
The Sacramento Kings defeated the Golden State Warriors 121-116 Wednesday at home. The star of the game was Russell Westbrook who finished with 23 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists. He shot 69% from the field and 75% from three. What a performance by the 36-year-old!
The Warriors were without Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green in this one, but the Kings were without Zach LaVine and Domantas Sabonis. So Russ and Dennis Schroder (18 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists) took the undermanned Warriors to school in the second half. The Kings defense forced the Warriors in 19 turnovers and scored a whopping 30 points off those turnovers. Sacramento also won points in the paint 54-40 without the services of Sabonis.
Newly acquired Precious Achiuwa provided some nice minutes off the bench. He finished with 4 points, 3 rebounds and a block in 9 minutes.
It was an exciting second half as Westbrook inched closer to a triple double, Schroder locked in on defense and the Kings closed out the win.
From Earlier Preview:
The Sacramento Kings are back in action tonight to face an old rival: the Golden State Warriors. Let’s get into it:
Who: Sacramento Kings (2-5) vs. Golden State Warriors (5-3)
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
When: 7:00 PM PT / 10:00 PM ET
Watch: NBCSCA / League Pass
Since we last touched base in a game thread, the Sacramento Kings made a roster move: Precious Achiuwa in, Isaac Jones out.
You’re never going to believe this, but I hate it! Kidding. Sorta. I actually like Precious Achiuwa and think he’ll provide the team with a little energy and toughness boost. And he’s young enough that if it works out, he could be a fixture here for the years ahead. I much prefer this route than signing another aging veteran on his last contract.
I don’t like giving up on Isaac Jones, though, when the glaring issues at forward have been clear for… years? If the Kings didn’t wait so long to address it, if the Kings didn’t construct one of the least-balanced rosters these eyes have ever seen, you wouldn’t have had to give up a young player to fill the gap. I don’t know if Jones will be a successful pro, but we’ve seen some decent flashes, and a season like this is exactly when the Kings should be giving their young players like Jones an extended look.
With a little bit of foresight, the Kings could have simply… not signed Doug McDermott, a 33-year old veteran who hasn’t played a single minute this season. Or moved 31-year-old Dario Saric, who is also wasting away on the bench. Or again, moved any of the many guards they insist on employing.
I’m not going to lose my mind over this one. Not until Jones starts playing well for someone else. But this clusterf*** is just another example of poor planning, awful roster construction, and the prioritization of ‘win-now’ over youth. Anyway, back to the game.
It appears the Warriors will be without Stephen Curry (illness) and possibly Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green, too. If these Kings are ever going to beat the Warriors, tonight would be the night.
Sacramento has some of their own injury concerns. Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine are questionable, so, you know. We’ll see.
Prediction: Kings 114, Warriors 110
Host the team from just down the freeway
That gave us Vivek Ranadive.
It was such a mean trick
That will keep us all sick
Until he sells the team on eBay!
+1 Steph’s not playing tonight?!
I also expect Sabonis to be out. I mean, he has a chest contusion. And IIRC, he had a chest contusion once before. Hmmm, when was that…?
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When: 7:00 PM ET / 10:00 PM PT
The bigger news here is that the Earth has switched rotation!
All the result of some serious “site maintenance”!
good stuff by me
Dougie McBuckets appearance tonight.
So Precious will start at C tonight!
That would be hilarious if so.
He’s at least 7 years too young to get minutes on this team. Blake Griffin, on the other hand, seems like a perfect fit for this roster.
I’m telling you all…Perry is going to trade Keon to Houston for Jeff Green. That dude can bring some veteran leadership to Westbrook and DDR.
That’s the kind of inside the box thinking that gets you a Kings front office job!
In fairness, it was a better job 2 days ago…
Keon gets 16 minutes
With everyone out tonight I’m predicting Westbrook and DDR taking all the shots and will become the oldest duo ever to combine for 70 points.
Can they reach their combined age (72) in points? This season, were doubling the broadcast volume, increasing font sizes by quadruple, and giving away a free can of Miralax with every Kings.com purchase!
Kuminga career high tonight?
His career high is 34, so there is a very real chance.
Its gonna be Podz and Hield burning the hoops tonight
With Steph and Butler out and Dray questionable, you would think the Kangz could steal one. But with Domas and Lavine out too, its gonna be a Dubs win simply because Kangz.
And what’s with all these Ja Morant to the Kings talk? Another Vivek fanatsy? We get good Ja, yes. Bone-headed Ja? Very Kangz move.
With that being said, Monk, Saric, Carter, and Keon for Ja works. Or Lavine straight up for Ja, or DDR and Monk for Ja. (I’d rather have JJJ)
This is ugly.
Only a few minutes in and the refs are wearing blue and gold.
This lineup ain’t it Doug.
Depressing to see/hear this much blue at G1C but the team really has no one to blame but itself
DeRozan fouled twice no call, then punched in the face. Unbelievable.
Kyle makes a joke. Kayte takes it seriously and proceeds to give a long-winded answer starting with “hey listen.” Lol
Let’s go Mad Max and Nique the big Purple Dog
Hey Kayte there’s a game going on here!
“Hey, listen.” Maybe she gets paid by the word per broadcast?
You know your team is legit when you sign Precious A. two weeks into the season and he gets into the game and tries to create a play in the paint.
Drewbanks and Precious! Lol. Oh man…
Who had Eubanks leading the Kings in scoring with 8 pts!
LOL.
Good Monk Bad Monk
Is it just my extremely heavy bias or are we uniquely terrible at not leaving guys wide open for 3?
Listen, something that most folks don’t realize is that it’s amazing that Kayte was quite for almost two possessions.
Shit DDR gonna iso and shoot 30 FGA tonight
Enough with the DeRozan hero ball. We don’t need that tonight.
At least he kneed Buddy in the nuts and he hasn’t been seen since
I could go the rest of my life without seeing another DeMar ISO play and be completely happy.
Man, this site is really running slow.
Yeah, it’s been hard to navigate for a few weeks now.
How’s that ‘site maintenance’ coming? Or should I say ‘when’ is that site maintenance coming?
Server migrations suck. Nothing ever goes as planned. And this is a small team. It’ll get better.
Great defense Keon
Hard to believe we’re only paying Westbrook 3.3 million on an unguaranted contract
Yeah, he’s playing at a 2023-24 Malik level right now; makes at least 3 boneheaded plays a game but he’s arguably the best player on the team and inarguably the heart of it.
Heart? Soul? I dunno, he’s the only guy above 30 who seems to truly give a shit.
But is he a Pizza Guy?
He should be
Golden Pizza Guys?
Great Nique minutes. Scott Perry you may not be that bad after all. Just don’t answer Viwrek’s calls for Ja Morant.
Hang an L on the Dubs and “Light the Beam”!
This site keeps going down or not loading. Pain in the ass
Westbrook had one of those “back in the day” games.
W-a-r-r-I-o-r-s!
Russ and Dennis played like a top guard combo tonite . If only they were 27 again .
Not sure I like the treading-water-for-a-play-in-spot thing that Vivek is directing the team to do each year, but I’m figuring there were a bunch of Duds fans in attendance today who I’m happy get to go home disappointed.
And yeah, the site is becoming nearly unusable at times with the slow load. Hopefully this is fixable.
First time I’ve liked seeing the French get one over the Dutch!
We have made some server updates to the site. Sorry for the recent slowdowns, we have been working on them.
Just FYI to staff. Comments are only showing up for me if I login. If this is be design just disregard. Seems to be a new thing on my end so just figured I’d mention it. Cheers!
In terms of roster construction, we had it set already. Without signing Schroder, Dougie, Eubanks, and Saric, and signing Westbrook earlier, I’m assuming we could have kept JV (no need for Eubanks – who’s growing on me), we could have re-signed Lyles to roughly what he’s being paid overseas (brings toughness, size, 3 pt. shooting), maybe had a shot at convincing La Ravia to stay, and found a serviceable back-up PG at the League minimum behind Westbrook. Maybe I have some of the money wrong, but I’d be happier with that team and the flexibility it gives for future moves.
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