NBA: Kings hold on to beat Steph Curry, Warriors
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Sacramento Kings’ De’Aaron Fox (5) picks up the ball after Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30) lost it on the Warriors’ final possession in an NBA basketball game Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, in San Francisco. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
SAN FRANCISCO — When Harrison Barnes starts feeling it, the Sacramento Kings look for him in any spot he likes.
In another wild game with the Golden State Warriors, they needed every bit of Barnes’ best — including his timely block against Jonathan Kuminga in the tense closing moments.
Domantas Sabonis made a go-ahead dunk with 22 seconds left, Barnes scored a career-high 39 points with back-to-back baskets in crunch time, and the Kings held off the Warriors 134-133 in the NBA on Thursday night to split their season series at two games each.
“The way you have a high-powered offense is all five guys are going to have to make sacrifices at times,” Barnes said, crediting his team’s unselfishness.
Stephen Curry threw an alley-oop to Kuminga with 1:22 left that got Golden State within 132-131. Kuminga then rebounded a missed 3-pointer by De’Aaron Fox and dunked again for the lead.
After Sabonis’ dunk, Kuminga got blocked by Barnes with 18 seconds to go, hoping he’d get a whistle. Sacramento’s Kevin Huerter missed a pair of free throws with 15 seconds remaining to give the Warriors one last chance. Curry dribbled around the perimeter trying to get a look and lost the ball — a similar ending to the Warriors’ 124-123 loss Nov. 28 when he turned the ball over late.
Curry said he probably should have called a timeout. “The chaos of the moment you’re trying to make a play,” he said, “sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Fox added 29 points and five assists for Sacramento, which beat Atlanta 122-107 at home on Monday night to end a four-game losing streak.
The Kings went to the hot hand in Barnes, who notched his second straight 30-point game.
“I think a lot of it just happens in the flow,” Fox said. “That’s kind of how he’s getting going and once he gets going there’s more of an effort to get him the ball in certain spots.”
Curry scored 33 points with six 3-pointers on a night the teams combined to hit 41 from long range. Curry made 5 of his first 7 3-pointers on the way to 18 points in the opening quarter, his season high for any period.
Kuminga scored a career-high 31 points in his career-best fifth straight game with 20 or more points, a night after his 11-for-11 performance matched Hall of Famer Chris Mullin for most made baskets without a miss.
Curry pulled Golden State within 122-121 on a layup with 4:45 left only for Fox to knock down consecutive 3s. Kuminga converted a 3-point play with 3:53 to go that made it 128-124.
This was another back-and-forth battle between the Northern California neighbors who went the distance in their first-round playoff series last spring before Curry scored 50 in Game 7 to send the Warriors to the Western Conference semifinals.
After playing three times between Oct. 27 and Nov. 28, Sacramento tried to make it two in a row after winning 124-123 at home in Golden 1 Center in that previous meeting almost two months ago.
Andrew Wiggins scored 17, Klay Thompson 16 and Dario Saric 14 as the Warriors completed an emotional 24 hours with back-to-back games after celebrating the life of assistant coach Dejan Milojević during Wednesday’s 134-112 win over the Hawks a week after “Deki” as they called him died following a heart attack.
Kings coach Mike Brown wore a black “BRATE” shirt — it means brother in Serbian and Deki used it fondly — with Milojević’s initials inside a heart the Warriors had made to honor him.
“Man, what an entertaining game,” Brown said afterward.
During warmups, Curry told rookie teammate Brandin Podziemski he wanted to bring New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu, the all-time 3-point contest record holder with 37 points, to town for a shootout.
Ionescu replied on X, formerly Twitter, with a message and emoji of two eyes looking: “Let’s getttttt it!! See ya at the 3 pt line (at)StephenCurry30.”
Curry now has 3,734 career defensive rebounds, moving him into second place in Warriors franchise history and past Larry Smith (3,731).
The two-time MVP also has scored at least 24 points in his last 25 games against the Kings in the regular season and playoffs — 15 of those with 30 or more, four 40-plus games and the 50-point performance.
NEXT SCHEDULE
Kings: At Dallas on Saturday night.
Warriors: Host the Lakers on Saturday night.
