Stephen Curry is motioning to rebrand the Golden 1 Center in his name.
In his last game in Sacramento before Friday night, Curry ended the Kings’ season with a 50-point masterpiece. For his encore act, he dropped 41 points in 35 minutes. That’s 91 points in his last two games against the Kings in Sacramento.
Curry was all over the court on Friday night’s nationally televised game, sinking 14 of his 19 field goal attempts, including seven of his 10 3-pointers.
Four straight fourth-quarter turnovers from the Warriors allowed Sacramento to threaten Golden State’s lead, but Curry’s 3-pointer with 43.1 seconds left put the Kings’ comeback effort to bed.
De’Aaron Fox (39 points) did his best to match Curry, but the Warriors legend pushed Golden State (1-1) to a 122-114 win.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ victory.
Steph Curry: superhuman
Curry, at 35 years old, is still operating at an unabashed MVP level.
Curry let the offense come to him, drilling open shots off the catch and refusing to force things off the dribble. His teammates initially struggled from deep, starting 1-for-10, but Curry elevated the offense.
At halftime, Curry had 18 points on 6-for-9 shooting. As always, he leveraged his court gravity expertly. On the final possession of the half, he swiped Davion Mitchell’s handle for a steal and held up for the last shot. When a double team came to him, he swung to Klay Thompson at the top of the break, who hooked an extra pass into the corner for Jonathan Kuminga for a 3.
That doesn’t happen without the defense freaking out about Curry 40 feet from the hoop.
Curry was so dominant, the Warriors looked clueless without him. When he sat between the first and second quarters, the Kings went on a 21-9 run.
Curry’s dominance only accelerated in the third quarter, when he immediately broke free for a backdoor cut and then drilled an off-the-bounce 3 over Kevin Huerter’s tight contest. He already had 28 points in 23 minutes.
With the hot hand, he shook off a double team and got all the way to the cup for another layup, bringing his total to 34 points (oh, and that was right after his 51st career 4-point play).
As Golden State’s fourth-quarter lead slipped, Curry was curiously uninvolved in the offense. Sacramento was double-teaming him and face-guarding him, but the Warriors had too many empty trips without Curry even getting a touch.
Then, with GSW’s lead dwindling, he canned the game-clinching triple.
Chris Paul still finding his footing
At one point late in the third quarter, Chris Paul found himself wide open in the corner after a signature drive-and-kick that has defined Warriors basketball for the past decade. But instead of pulling the shot, he hesitated, allowing the Kings defense to recover.
Those are the types of shots Paul hasn’t taken in his career, but will have to attempt in Golden State.
Those quick-trigger 3s that come within the offense have rarely been there for Paul in his career. He’s used to creating his own offense in pick-and-rolls.
Making quicker shot decisions off the catch might be the biggest learning curve for Paul to get completely in sync with the Warriors.
Even without full comfortability level with the system, Paul still brings so much value. He followed up that decision with two consecutive magnificent assists. With Paul, the Warriors have the ability to have at least one elite playmaker on the court at all times.
Paul again was on the court to close the game — a no-brainer with Draymond Green sidelined — and finished with a double-double.
With 12 assists and two turnovers, he now has a 21:3 ratio on the year.
Championship level defense
Until De’Aaron Fox, the 2023 Clutch Player of the Year, went off for 22 points in the fourth quarter, the Warriors’ defense was impressive. Even still, limiting last year’s most prolific offense to 114 points is no joke.
Sacramento needed a heroic Fox run in the fourth to break 30 points in a single quarter.
At one point in the first half, the Warriors tried their hand at a zone despite having a lineup with Klay Thompson, Moses Moody, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney — all capable defenders. They quickly ditched it when SAC got on a roll, an apt decision.
The Warriors are focused on cleaning up a few things they struggled with last year defensively: avoiding fouling and holding opponents to one shot per trip.
They succeeded on both fronts. They gave up 29 free throws, which isn’t perfect but has been much worse in the past. They got out-rebounded by just two, which was a vast improvement from when Jusuf Nurkic owned the paint in the opener.
Doing it without Green is a massive feat.
