With a strong performance from Stephen Curry and his new-look supporting cast, the Warriors on Thursday beat the Kings 113-109 in Sacramento in their final game of the preseason.
Curry’s 17-point flurry in the third quarter helped swing the game and open up a 17-point lead. He finished with 29 points on 9-for-23 shooting (6-for-13 from 3-point range), six rebounds and three assists in 29 minutes.
Along with Curry, wings Andrew Wiggins (19 points, four rebounds, three assists and three blocks) and Kelly Oubre (22 points and four rebounds) helped create shots, push the pace and limit Sacramento’s perimeter scorers.
For conditioning reasons, Draymond Green and James Wiseman did not play at all in the preseason after testing positive for the coronavirus prior to training camp.
The Warriors, who finished 2-1 in a preseason shortened by the pandemic, open the regular season Tuesday at Brooklyn. It will be their first encounter with Kevin Durant since he left the Bay Area as a free agent in 2019. Following the opener, they go to Milwaukee to play the Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo on Christmas Day.
Here are four takeaways from the game.
This version of Wiggins can lead the second unit: Head coach Steve Kerr went into the game hoping to answer some questions about a second unit that struggled in the first two preseason games by playing it for long stretches to start the second and fourth quarters. With the game tied at 29 after the opening period, Wiggins, Brad Wanamaker, Kent Bazemore, Eric Paschall and Marquese Chriss entered and helped take a three-point lead into halftime, setting the stage for Curry to break the game open in the third.
Wiggins, in particular, led the bench by forcing his way to the rim, finding open shooters on the perimeter and playing inspired defense. Scoring 11 points in the first quarter with the starters may have given him the confidence to take over in the second.
“When he’s going like that,” Bazemore said, “we’re a different team.”
This is the dynamic for Wiggins this season. He’ll play a complementary role to start games, but then be tasked with becoming the primary option against backups. Either way, the Warriors need him to be aggressive. “We’ve got to have Andrew in attack mode,” Kerr said.
Here’s Wiggins with the starters, sprinting the floor after a Kings’ miss, creating the type of transition opportunity coaches have been asking for.
Steph Curry: QB1 pic.twitter.com/NZDRcliEv6
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 18, 2020
Playing with backups in the third quarter, he ran a pick-and-roll with Chriss, pulled the ball out, got to his spot and pulled up for a deep 3-pointer with Harrison Barnes in front of him.
Wiggins 3️⃣ in Barnes' face pic.twitter.com/qTnKubFpId
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 18, 2020
Oubre is settling in: This was easily Oubre’s best game in a Warriors uniform — a preseason-high of 22 points on a tidy 8-of-12 shooting. Instead of forcing shots, he was more patient and a more willing participant in the team’s ball movement.
“He settled down,” Kerr said. “He looks more comfortable.”
A couple of things to monitor with Oubre on defense: He tends to ball watch and get beat when his assignment cuts to the basket. He also dies on screens too often. It happened a few times tonight, including on this 3-pointer by Buddy Hield.
Buddy doing Buddy things. pic.twitter.com/1Bkw6SBZnG
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) December 18, 2020
The defense is improving: After allowing a sharp-shooter in Hield to make 50% of his 3-pointers and a slasher in De’Aaron Fox to score 10 of his 17 points in the paint on Tuesday, the Warriors held a Sacramento-based shoot around Thursday morning in which coaches drilled the player on understanding personnel. The results: Hield went only 3-of-9 from 3-point range and Fox was held to eight points.
“Much better job tonight of understanding personnel, recognizing situations,” Kerr said. “We had fewer mental mistakes than we had the other night, and so all in all a better defensive performance than the other night and I think we took a step forward.”
The Warriors still need to clean some things up on defense. They fouled too much and the Kings’ 28 points from the free-throw line helped keep them in the game. Continuing with their preseason trend of struggling to protect the rim, the Warriors gave up 52 points in the paint. Green and Wiseman returning will help, but won’t completely solve a defense that’s been a little squishy.
Juan Toscano-Anderson makes his case for the final two-way spot: Toscano-Anderson doesn’t score, play-make or defend outstandingly well, but he just knows what to do. So much of the early part of the season will be Curry’s teammates learning to play off of him, and Toscano-Anderson already has an understanding of what it takes. He’s a constant screener for Curry, and knows how to move when Curry is doing his relocation thing. Here, he goes under Curry’s defender to help clear the left wing and create space for Curry to pull up.
"Yes sir!" 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/T33Fr3TwUE
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) December 18, 2020
Despite him going scoreless, there’s a reason the Warriors outscored the Kings by 17 points when Toscano-Anderson was on the floor. With rosters needing to be set by Dec. 21, he may be the favorite to earn the Warriors’ final two-way spot.
