The Warriors fell apart against the Kings.
The Golden State Warriors seemed to have recovered nicely from their record-setting blowout loss against the Boston Celtics on Monday, as they jumped out to a big early lead on the road against the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night.
The Warriors led the Kings 65-48 at halftime, but the second half was a completely different story. The Kings stormed back and used a late 10-0 run to knock off the Warriors 123-117 and keep their hot streak going. After the game, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr highlighted the biggest issue in the second half collapse, via 95.7 The Game.
“Turnovers,” Kerr said. “The whole game was that. Third quarter turnovers. They were trapping in the first half, we handled the traps beautifully and got wide open looks and knocked down shots. In the second half we lost our poise. They picked up their pressure, but other than maybe two or three plays where they trapped Steph [Curry] and got a deflection, I thought almost every turnover was unforced. But sometimes when you get sped up you make poor decisions, and I thought that happened a little bit tonight.”
The turnover battle was one of the most lopsided stats on the board in this one. The Warriors gave the ball away 19 times, leading to 27 Kings points, while the Kings turned it over just eight times for 16 points. In a game that was eventually decided by six points, that makes a massive difference.
Dennis Schroder finished with five turnovers in just 21 minutes and Gary Payton II turned it over four times in 13 minutes. From players who are secondary ball handlers when they play alongside Curry, the numbers aren’t going to get the job done.
This loss drops the Warriors below .500 at 21-22, and they are now on the outside looking in of the Western Conference play-in picture. Golden State is really slumping of late, losing four of its last 10 games and plummeting down in the standings after a very hot start to the season. It’s unclear if the Warriors will be able to find any help on the trade market, but regardless of who is on the floor they need to get things turned around quickly if they want to make a push towards the playoffs.
