Warriors’ Superb Finish Break Excellent Kings, 130-125

Less than a month after he made a game-winning shot against the same rival, Klay Thompson did it again. His three-pointer sealed the fate of the Sacramento Kings, breaking their resistance and setting up the way for Warriors’ 20th win of the season, 130-125.

The Kings (15-13) were on the verge of defeating the champs. David Joerger’s youngsters had a big lead with three minutes to go, but failed to capitalize that.

Once again Klay Thomson was the buy who destroyed their hopes of winning.

“Just wide open on my wing, and no one was going to fall eventually, so never lose confidence, just keep shooting, and that’s what happened,” said Thompson about his three after the match.

yes hello we would like the lead back, thank you

📺 @NBCSAuthentic pic.twitter.com/6AOddhYlpJ

— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) December 15, 2018

He finished the night with 27 points, shooting 4 of 12 for three. His overall shooting percentage was equally bad with only 10 made shots from 27 attempts. However, all that was forgotten when he made that shot from deep.

In those moments, the Warriors were coming back for the second straight time after a double-digit deficit. The only difference when comparing it to the previous one, is that they didn’t have a space to fail, because there was less than a minute to go.

Thompson’s bomb came 39.6 seconds before the end, and it marked the moment when GSW took the lead for the first time after almost 10 minutes.

Throughout the first three quarters, Golden State controlled the match easily, not allowing the home team to be in front at least once. The Warriors even had a 16-point lead in the late part of the second quarter.

Still, the Kings were starting to get up at the end of the third period, and they made a 21-4 run since then, reaching a 112-105 lead with 8:45 to go until the end.

Warriors once again bounced back, leveling the score at 113-113, but the feisty youngsters from Sacramento exploded with 10 points in a row, pulling up one more time.

Kevin Durant wasn’t prepared to lose this game, and he on his own started what turned out to be a 17-2 run of his team. KD dropped 6 straight points, to wake his team up and to expose Sacramento’s defense.

“Late in the game, we just simplified everything. We were down 10 points in the fourth three minutes to, and we just simplified it.” Durant told after the game, when one of the reporters asked him how his team managed to rally back from a 10 point deficit.

The two-time NBA Finals MVP scored 33 points and added 8 rebounds and assists apiece.

https://twitter.com/balldontstop/status/1073823617232850944

Once again he spoke with kind words about the young Kings team, saying that they have a bright future ahead of them.

“I’ve been in this position before being young, and trying to figure it out who you are, and I think these guys got it, man, they’re playing so fast, they’re playing so hard, and always make it tough.”

After his spark, and Thompson’s clutch three, Steph Curry made four consecutive free throws and resolved all enigma’s surrounding this contest. He had a team-high 35 points, plus 7 boards and 6 dimes.

On the opposite side, Buddy Hield had 27 points, De’Aaron Fox added 25 with 9 assists and 6 rebounds, while Willie Cauley-Stein posted a double-double with 22 points and 10 rebounds.

The Warriors are second in the Western Conference, with 20 wins and 10 losses, behind the Nuggets who are 19-9. However, the champs will have an opportunity to improve this, as they play five of their next six games at home. We could easily see them topping the West before the holidays.

Their next rivals are the Memphis Grizzlies (16-12), who are sitting at the sixth place of this conference. They already met once before since the start of this season, on November the 6th, and the Warriors won that one at home 117-101.