Warriors’ 3-point frenzy exposes early concern for Kings originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SACRAMENTO – If this were the regular season, the Kings would be on the wrong side of history Wednesday night.
The Golden State Warriors made 28 3-pointers in their 122-112 preseason win against Sacramento at Ora 1 Center, surpassing their franchise record of 27 in the regular season.
A good sign for the new-look Warriors hoping to return to their sharp ways without franchise icon Klay Thompson in the mix. Bad for the Kings still looking 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. “Obviously, that’s where it started for us. We didn’t do a great job communicating, we didn’t do a great job with our ball pressure, we didn’t do a great job with our physicality, and that’s why they got open looks from the 3-point line because we were bad with everybody. of those things.
“When you’re not guarding your man and you’re looking at the ball, if he doesn’t have the ball, if he’s moving, he’s going to beat you because he knows when he moves, you react to him. And so our physicality has to be better. Our communication and screening situations, whether it’s on the ball or off the ball, have to be better.”
Former Kings guard Buddy Hield was 6 of 7 from deep off the bench. De’Anthony Melton and Jonathan Kuminga each added four 3s. Steph Curry and Lindy Waters III added three.
Golden State, a known high-speed 3-point team, shot 28 of 52 (53.8 percent) from deep. But the Kings didn’t do much to challenge those efforts.
Brown estimated of the 52 3s the Warriors attempted, about 30 of them were “wide open,” leaving them no choice but to punish the Kings’ defenders and put the rock in.
Here are some examples:
“We split too many times,” Brown said, “and then 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 bought into Brown’s defensive dreams over the past two years, spoke to reporters postgame in front of his coach but almost replicated Brown’s exact concerns defensively.
“Yeah, I mean, a lot of guys make shots. Just watching and looking back on it, I think it was just a lot of communication errors and not being physical enough off the ball, which led to a lot of their open, uncontested 3s,” Murray said. “So I guess that’s why we’re playing in the preseason , so that we can clean up such things.”
Really
And that’s exactly what they will do. The Kings will practice Thursday before traveling 80 miles southwest to San Francisco to face this same team Friday night at Chase Center.
A wild guess? They will focus on their 3-point defense before the preseason rematch.
As Murray testified, preseason is the time to tighten loose ends. While it’s a small sample size and a quick turnaround the Warriors face again, it could be a good way to measure the progress made in that area before the real fun begins in the regular season.
Kings star guard De’Aaron Fox, who continues to make defensive strides with each passing season, didn’t mince his words about the team’s defensive effort in Wednesday’s loss but pointed to some positives.
“We definitely have to defend the 3-point line better,” Fox said postgame. “I think they almost made 30, yeah, 28 3s. We’ve got to be a lot better than that. And I mean, we only gave up 13 free throws, which is a big number. Obviously, they only made six, but even if they made 13, just sending the team to the line 13 times in the game is great But more than half of the shots they made were 3s So we have to be better.
“And then just giving up four offensive rebounds helps us, too. But, I mean, they shot almost 55 percent. [from the field] so not many opportunities for them. So we have to be better at that — especially guarding the 3-point line.”
With the addition of DeMar DeRozan this offseason, there’s no telling the heights this team can go to offensively with the six-time NBA All-Star, Fox and Domantas Sabonis leading the way.
Defensively, however, there are some question marks about how effective that starting lineup could be with those three listed above, in addition to Murry and Keon Ellis.
Brown knows there are things to work on, but he shared an overall assessment of that first unit’s defensive efficiency.
“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 with that group.
“We’re going to find ways to win. And, you know, we still have Kevin [Huerter] out, we got Trey [Lyles] out So we will find ways to win. We’ll have the combinations on the floor to do it. But it comes back to us being great defensively, which we haven’t been, consistently over a long period of time — and that includes our first unit.”
