Coming of the high of two straight wins at Oracle Arena the Golden State Warriors fell hard back to Earth tonight as the Sacramento Kings embarras the W’s by a score of 129-119. It was a showcase of two of the best Thorntons in the league, but it was Marcus who outshined Al.
On the second night of a back to back the Warriors came out really flat; in fact, the game wasn’t as close as the score would indicate as the Kings held a large double digit lead throughout the game, scoring an astounding 71 points in the first half alone. The game was physical with a total of 49 fouls called,their even was a bit of a skirmish towards the end of the second quarter as the Warriors were obviously frustrated with their play and the Kings were riled up and ready to win. That bus ride to Sac town must really have taken it out of of the W’s.
It was a battle of the Thorntons tonight with Marcus taking the cake, scoring 42 points on 13-20 shooting including 4 threes, while the W’s newly acquired Al Thornton had his best showing as a Warrior with 23 points in 21 minutes off the bench. Steph Curry had 19 with 5 threes, Dorell Wright had 18 on 5-8 shooting, Monta had 15, and Vladimir Radmanovic added 16 off the bench. For the Kings it was the big boys doing some damage as Samuel Dalembert had a double-double with 27 points and 16 boards while DeMarcus Cousins added 15 and 9 boards. The Warriors were -22 in rebounding (46-24), while both teams shot 33 free throws for the game. It will likely mark the last time these teams will ever play in Sacramento again as the Kings are all but packed for their new home in Anaheim.
With the loss it moves the Warriors to 30-37 for the season, 7.5 games out of the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. This was a game the Warriors should have won but had lost from the start, and must now regroup quickly as they face a dominate Dallas Mavericks team on Wednesday at Oracle.