The Golden State Warriors got the stop they so desperately needed in the fourth quarter Tuesday night, daring Davion Mitchell to take a wide-open pull-up three as De'Aaron Fox waited to sub in at the scorer's table. Mitchell's miss bounced hard off the back of the rim, landing just a couple feet inside the left corner arc as Draymond Green approached.
Instead of chasing after the ball to start a fast break and cut into his team' double-digit deficit, though, Green opted for a casual jog, prepared to let the ball go out of bounds. But one of the smartest and most competitive players of his generation had a sudden change of heart, deciding to finally corral the rock as all momentum pushed him to the sideline.
Turnover. Kings ball again, up 17 points at an increasingly raucous Golden 1 Center with 8:27 left.
Green couldn't even muster palpable frustration after the whistle blew. The detached resulting look on his face served as a microcosm of what had befallen the Dubs since tipoff and a harbinger of what would play out as 2023-24 came to a disastrous yet familiar close.
Still down big a couple minutes later, Golden State faced its last gasp—and Steve Kerr knew it. Trailing 102-86 with just over six minutes left on the game clock, the Warriors tried to spearhead a comeback by speeding up the game, running two defenders at Fox almost the moment he crossed halfcourt. Keon Ellis caught the ball just above the free throw line, successfully getting the ball out of Fox's hands as the Dubs willingly surrendered a 4-on-3.
Surely Golden State knew how to manage that numbers advantage defensively, right? Wrong. Green joined Trayce Jackson-Davis by converging on the ball, resulting in a clean corner three from Harrison Barnes as his loudmouth former teammate could barely muster a hopeless contest.
The Dubs, somehow, weren't done crumbling. Mirroring Green's previous turnover, Stpehen Curry literally dribbled himself out of bounds on the next trip down, sending Golden 1 Center into an absolute frenzy—and the Kings to a surefire victory over their Northern California rivals in a do-or-die play-in game.
Golden State fell to Sacramento 118-94 on Tuesday, getting outplayed from the opening tip to the final buzzer with the season on the line.
The Dubs were owned on the offensive glass, losing the second-chance points battle 25-9. They committed 16 turnovers to the Kings' eight, those tandem deficiencies largely accounting for Sacramento taking a whopping 18 more shots from the field.
“It was total domination,” Kerr said after the game. “They deserved it. They had a great game tonight.”
Stephen Curry, Warriors overwhelmed by Kings
Overwhelmed by the home team's physicality on the glass, pressure on the perimeter and overall energy, the Warriors trailed 31-22 after the first quarter. They cut the Kings' lead to four by halftime, with a personal 6-0 run from Jonathan Kuminga and impact contributions from Moses Moody and Brandin Podziemski providing them some much-needed life heading into intermission.
Curry, who scored just five first-half points on as many shots, gave Golden State more oxygen to start the third quarter. Running the same offensive set they have for years, the Dubs began the second half with Curry catching at the top of the key off a zipper cut three straight times. The result? A tough layup past Keegan Murray, a filthy step-back three over Murray and a layup for Andrew Wiggins after Sacramento sent two defenders at the greatest shooter ever.
Curry's flurry made the score 58-57 less than two minutes into the third quarter, visions of last year's 50-point masterclass as the Warriors took down the Kings in Game 7 appearing for literally anyone watching. His heroics proved short-lived, though, as Sacramento's suffocating defense and Golden State's consistent inability to capitalize on mass attention paid to Curry ended their season far earlier than normal.
“You can't win it every year, but there was so much belief that we could make something of this season and keep our hopes alive, try to get a win tonight and taking it from there,” Curry said. “Sacramento played unbelievable tonight. They played aggressive… Seemed like they got every 50-50 loose ball, offensive rebound. It was a tough way to end our year for sure.”
Curry finished with 22 points on 16 shots, with many of his six turnovers coming at the worst times. The Kings switched Ellis onto him after Curry lit up Murray early in the second half, a change that turned the game in their favor once again. Absolutely hounded by Ellis and Davion Mitchell on and off the ball, Curry was also flustered by Sacramento stashing Fox on Green, switching ball screens and hand-offs when he wasn't being trapped.
Golden State just never got anything going as the Kings forced the ball from Curry's hands. Green failed time and again while catching on the short roll, lacking space to operate as Sacramento packed the paint and trailed maniacally behind him. One of the best numbers-advantage decision-makers of all time was simply a negative in that regard with his team's back against the wall.
Golden State ends 2023-24 still searching for answers
There has already been ample discussion about Klay Thompson's future. The impending free agent played perhaps the worst game of his career on Tuesday, going scoreless for the first time since his rookie season while forcing up misses and getting blown by defensively. Needless to say, it wasn't the final taste Thompson wanted to leave in mouths of team honchos ahead of free agency this summer.
Nothing is set in stone. Thompson has made it abundantly clear he wants to remain in the Bay, but what went down at Golden 1 Center certainly makes one wonder—realities of an over-the-cap team like Golden State simply punting on Thompson's salary slot aside—if owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. are more likely to let the 34-year-old walk come July.
Green, though, seems extremely confident the Warriors will do right by his longtime teammate in free agency even if it may not be in the best interest of the organization.
“Yeah, I mean, obviously we want Klay back. We've been through a lot. Incredible highs, some sh***y lows, but the common denominator through both of 'em is we've gone through each and every scenario together,” Green said of he, Thompson and Curry. “It's obvious we wanna continue what we've been doing, but I understand he's got a decision to make. He's gotta make the best decision for him. Team got a decision to make. They'll make the best decision for the team.
“But you know, I have no doubt that even if—which I don't think there's any scenario in which Klay leaves and that's the best decision for this organization. If Joe or Mike or anybody felt that it was best that this team moves forward without Klay, that wouldn't be the decision that they make because they believe that,” he continued. “They've shown nothing but respect, loyalty, love, trust to us. I ain't got no reason to go into it like, ‘Oh, man, they won't do right by Klay.' They did right by me, they've done right by Steph, they've done right by all of us. Klay tore his ACL, they paid him $160 million. So I have no reason to think that our ownership group aren't going to take care of us the way we've taken care of this organization. Like I said, ultimately that decision will be Klay's, but I don't look at it like, ‘Ah, man they're only gonna do what's…' There's a lot of organizations that will only do what's best for the organization. This ain't one of 'em.”
All signs still point to Thompson returning to the Dubs. But just running it back with the same cast of characters clearly won't be good enough for Golden State, especially as a young, deep Western Conference continues to evolve and the tread on this team's Big Three continues to wear.
Just like they were back when the season tipped off in late October, the Warriors spent all of Tuesday's game searching for answers.
Trayce Jackson-Davis started once again, but was quickly benched after a rough initial stint made complicated by Golden State putting Green on Domantas Sabonis, asking the rookie big man to guard Harrison Barnes—the type of task he never took on this season. Kuminga helped the Dubs get back in the game in the second quarter, but mostly helped keep them out of it with ugly shot selection and overzealous baseline drives.
Andrew Wiggins didn't give the Warriors nearly enough, but looked indispensable when flashing as a one-on-one defender on Fox and versatile scorer offensively. Kevon Looney had his moments in two-man actions as a screener and held up typically well guarding Sabonis, but was still a major offensive liability when Sacramento bum-rushed Curry.
Where was this version of Moody all season, and could it have been unlocked if Kerr had let him play through mistakes across the 82-game grind? Podziemski was rock solid versus the Kings and throughout his debut campaign, but what's his optimal role for a contender on either side of the ball?
Kerr stressed during multiple points of a tumultuous regular season that the Warriors had “found” themselves.
First it was moving Looney to the bench, then completely out of the rotation. Next it was starting Green at small-ball five upon his return from indefinite suspension, unlocking the pairing of Wiggins and Kuminga. Then it was the headline-grabbing move of replacing Thompson with Podziemski as a starter, followed barely more than a month later by a reversion to the status quo. Slotting Jackson-Davis next to Green up front indeed propelled Golden State to a pivotal late-season run, but the former was close to unplayable when it truly mattered most against Sacramento.
Literally nothing came easy or the Warriors in 2023-24. Curry's commonly overlooked yet definitely perceptible individual decline will make the challenge of improving even more difficult. The dynasty could still be intact next fall, but Golden State has never seemed further from reaching the heights to which its grown accustom.
As another failed season crawled to a close, though, Kerr wasn't lamenting how poorly his team was playing, his role in its lack of continuity or even what the future holds. Watching Curry, Thompson and Green and their teammates get run ragged by a former Western Conference afterthought, he couldn't help but reminisce on a past of which no one is quite ready to give up.
“You think about how difficult and physical this game was. Our core group has had six Finals runs, where you have 24 of these games in one playoff run. That's what I was thinking about down the stretch of that game as it was clear we were losing,” he said. “That Sacramento dominated, but our guys have been fighting for so long. They're incredible competitors and warriors and I couldn't be prouder of them. But we've got an offseason where we've got a lot to think about, for sure.”
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