Warriors’ three-point frenzy exposes early concerns about Kings originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – If this had been the regular season, the Kings would have been on the wrong side of history Wednesday night.
The Golden State Warriors made 28 three-pointers in their 122-112 preseason win against Sacramento at the Golden 1 Center, surpassing their franchise record of 27 in the regular season.
A good sign for the new Warriors who hope to get back to shooting without franchise icon Klay Thompson in the mix. Bad thing for the Kings who are still searching for their defensive mojo.
“Thank God this is preseason because I think we would be in the record books for 3s made,” Kings coach Mike Brown said after the game. “That’s obviously where it started for us. We didn’t communicate well, we didn’t do a good job with our ball pressure, we didn’t do a good job with our physicality, and so they got open looks from the three-point line because we were bad with everyone. of those things.
“If you don’t guard your man and watch the ball, if he doesn’t have the ball, if he moves, he’s going to beat you, because he knows when he moves, that you’re reacting to him. And so our physicality has to be better. Our communication and screening situations, whether on the ball or off the ball, need to improve.”
Former Kings guard Buddy Hield was 6 of 7 from deep off the bench. De’Anthony Melton and Jonathan Kuminga each added four threes. Steph Curry and Lindy Waters III added three.
Golden State, a noted high-speed 3-point team, shot 28 of 52 (53.8 percent) from deep. But the kings did little to question these efforts.
Brown estimated that of the 52 3s the Warriors attempted, about 30 were “wide open,” leaving them no choice but to punish the Kings’ defenders and put the stone up and in.
Here are a few examples:
“We’ve been busted too many times,” Brown said, “and we wouldn’t talk, and two guys would go with the guy who dives to the rim and leaves a guy open, or vice versa.”
Kings third-year forward Keegan Murray, a true student of the game who has taken over Brown’s defensive dreams the past two years, spoke to reporters after the game in front of his coach but defensively nearly replicated Brown’s exact concerns.
“Yeah, I mean, a lot of guys take shots. Just looking at it and looking back on it, I think it was just a lot of miscommunication and not being physical enough off the ball, which led to a lot of their open, uncontested 3s,” Murray said. “So I think that’s why we’re playing in preseason, so we can clear that stuff up.”
WHERE.
And that’s exactly what they will do. The Kings will practice Thursday before traveling 80 miles southwest to San Francisco to play the same team Friday night at Chase Center.
Wild guess? They will focus on their three-point defense before the preseason rematch.
As Murray has confirmed, preseason is the time to tie up loose ends. While the Warriors are once again dealing with a small sample size and a quick turnaround, it could be a good way to gauge progress on that front before the real regular-season fun begins.
Kings star point guard De’Aaron Fox, who continues to make defensive strides each season, didn’t mince words about the team’s defensive effort in Wednesday’s loss, but pointed out some positives.
“We definitely need to defend the three-point line better,” Fox said after the game. “I think they made almost 30, yeah, 28 threes. We’ve got to be a lot better than that. And I mean, we only gave up 13 free throws, which is a great number. Obviously they only made six, but even if they made 13, but only sending the team to the line 13 times in the game is great. But more than half of the shots they made were threes, so we have to be better at that.
“And then giving up just four offensive rebounds also helps us. But I mean, they shot almost 55 percent [from the field] so not many opportunities for them. So we have to be better in that area, especially guarding the three-point line.”
With the addition of DeMar DeRozan this offseason, there’s no telling how high this team can go offensively, with the six-time NBA All-Star, Fox and Domantas Sabonis leading the way.
Defensively, however, there are a few question marks about how effective the starting lineup could be with the three players mentioned above, in addition to Murry and Keon Ellis.
Brown knows there are things he needs to work on, but he shared an overall assessment of that first unit’s defensive performance.
“Good in spurts,” Brown said of his starters’ defense. “I thought those guys did some nice things on the defensive side of the ball in spurts, but the biggest thing is the physicality has to increase with that group, and the communication has to increase.” should increase with that group.
‘We’re going to find ways to score. And you know, we still have Kevin [Huerter] When we get out, we have Trey [Lyles] out. So we’re going to find ways to score. We’re going to have the combinations on the floor to make it happen. But the bottom line is we’re great defensively, which we weren’t, consistently for a long period of time, and that includes our first unit.”
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