© Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
Once upon a time, the Warriors were the end-all be-all best shooting team in the league. While the Warriors are still in the upper echelon of 3-point shooting (and making) teams, that is no longer the case. The league has rapidly copied the Warriors emphasis on 3-pointers and there are now 13 teams that take 3-pointers more frequently than the Warriors.
Tonight, the Warriors and Kings went tit-for-tat from behind the arc to break an NBA record, but with a 20-point fourth quarter by Stephen Curry, the Warriors were able to pull off a 127-123 win.
Here are three thoughts from tonight’s game:
A record-setting 3-point shooting night in Sacramento
No longer are the Kings a reliable bottom feeder in the Western Conference. They are fighting for a playoff spot with a young team of athletic sharpshooters, and tonight, they and the Warriors were cold-blooded from behind the arc.
Tonight, the Kings set their franchise record for 3-pointers and both teams combined to set the record for most 3-pointers made (41 total) in an NBA game. Look at these numbers on 3-pointers:
Kings: 20-of-36 (55.6 percent)
Warriors: 21-of-47 (44.7 percent)
How did we get there? It came from who you’d expect on the Warriors’ side and some less notorious Kings players:
Warriors:
Stephen Curry: 42 points, 10-of-20 from 3-pt
Kevin Durant: 29 points, 3-of-7 from 3-pt
Klay Thompson: 20 points, 3-of-6 from 3-pt
Quinn Cook: 10 points, 3-of-4 from 3-pt
Kings:
Buddy Hield: 32 points, 8-of-13 from 3-pt
Justin Jackson: 28 points, 5-of-7 from 3-pt
Bogdan Bogdanovic: 17 points, 3-of-8 from 3-pt
Nemanja Bjelica: 12 points, 2-of-2 from 3-pt
Kevin Durant is contagious
Durant is contagious offensively, but tonight, the Kings PA announcer took that reputation a bit further. In the first quarter, Durant picked up a cut on his arm and while it was being taped, the Kings PA announcer poked fun at Durant said the stoppage was due to “infectious disease” control. When a Kings player had a cut minutes later, the same thing happened, but this time Durant walked over and laughed with the PA announcer, according to Anthony Slater.
KD's got beef with the PA announcer 😂 pic.twitter.com/gQTxc1M6ot
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) January 6, 2019
That joke came during a quarter that Durant was at his most contagious on offense. On four-straight possessions in the first quarter to lead the Warriors to 13 consecutive makes. First, a pass to a wide-open Klay Thompson despite a mismatch for Durant in the post against Yogi Ferrell:
KD knows you gotta feed Klay when he's 🔥 pic.twitter.com/LQ44Qscm2y
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) January 6, 2019
The very next possession was deja vu, but with Stephen Curry:
Steph from UC Davis 😳 pic.twitter.com/zW7ZqaBBcr
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) January 6, 2019
Then, KD hit Quinn Cook for a four-point play:
.@QCook323 was on the floor for 11 seconds and made 👏 it 👏 happen 👏
📺 @NBCSAuthentic pic.twitter.com/XCfFcc4nEj
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) January 6, 2019
And then he followed it up with an absolute hammer of a dunk:
KD 🔨🔨🔨 pic.twitter.com/ajaWEtd8GF
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) January 6, 2019
Durant finished with a team-high 9 assists along with 29 points, 5 rebounds and 2 blocks
“I don’t want to doubt you”
That’s how some Warriors fans have been feeling about Steve Kerr and the way he’s chosen to stagger Stephen Curry’s minutes against Kevin Durant’s. The minutes staggering for Curry has often seen him pulled to the bench while he’s hitting a groove, sometimes in the middle of the fourth quarter. When Kerr was asked about it, here’s what he said.
“I think the whole idea is to stagger Steph and KD as best we can,” Kerr said. “We didn’t do much the last couple of years, but we had a different team the last couple of years. With this year’s team, we feel pretty strongly that we have to stagger them.”
Whereas Durant or Klay Thompson would often play with the Warriors’ bench in the past, Curry is now spending big chunks of the game with the second unit. In theory, it protects the Warriors from having their bench exposed without one of the team’s stars on the floor. But it’s been odd and confusing to see Curry pulled from the game in the fourth quarter, even if only for a few minutes, and sometimes not making it back into the game until there are five minutes remaining.
This is what Kerr said today when he was asked about the rotations, saying that Curry is actually playing more in the fourth quarter than he has in previous years:
Steve Kerr with a fuller explanation on Steph Curry’s new rotational pattern, which has him exiting in the middle of the fourth quarter pic.twitter.com/po6T3QQ16b
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) January 5, 2019
As the Sacramento-based alternative rock band CAKE sang on “Love You Madly,” Warriors fans are thinking, “I don’t want to wonder, if this is a blunder… I don’t want to doubt you.”
Well, tonight, Kerr obliged. Kerr played all 12 minutes in the fourth quarter, including this three, en route to an astounding 20-point fourth quarter:
STEPH. TIE GAME. pic.twitter.com/Ogyqmx5rFp
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) January 6, 2019
