The Golden State Warriors get an opportunity to swing by home briefly on their five-game, five-city journey when they host the Sacramento Kings on Thursday night in San Francisco.
The Warriors began their 10-day adventure in Texas, where they seemed relegated to a two-game split when they gave veterans Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Otto Porter Jr. and Nemanja Bjelica the night off Tuesday in San Antonio after a 122-108 win at Houston the day before.
Lo and behold, even with Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and James Wiseman also out of action, and with Gary Payton II injured in the third period, the Warriors stunned the Spurs with a 35-16, fourth-quarter flurry that featured 14 points from Jonathan Kuminga and a go-ahead 3-pointer from Jordan Poole with 17.9 seconds remaining in a 124-120 win.
Poole finished with a game-high 31 points, but the victory was also a credit to the efforts of Damion Lee and Moses Moody, who contributed 21 and 20 points, respectively, in rare starts, and Kuminga, who added 19 off the bench.
“The great part of having depth and having young players and having stars like Steph and Klay is that you can mix-and-match and still be able to win and develop guys and look at different combinations,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the win. “It’s a great position to be in organizationally.”
The Warriors expect Curry, Thompson, Wiggins, Porter and possibly even Iguodala and Payton back for their meeting with the Kings, who used a strong finish to outlast the Brooklyn Nets 112-101 at home on Wednesday night.
The duel will be the third of the season for the Northern California rivals, with the Warriors having already won 119-107 at Sacramento in October and 113-98 at home in December.
The Kings will be playing the second of five straight games in Northern California, the only one of the five not on their home court.
The surprise victory over the visiting Nets began the sequence after Sacramento had lost five straight on an Eastern swing that extended their losing streak to seven.
Like the Warriors, the Kings were far from at full strength in their win, but it had nothing to do with resting players. Star point guard De’Aaron Fox missed his sixth straight game with a sore left ankle, while Marvin Bagley III sat out a second in a row with a sprained left ankle.
Neither is likely to return for the Golden State game.
With Fox missing at the point, rookie Davion Mitchell likely will get a bulk of the matchup against Curry, who has burned the Kings for a total of 57 points and eight 3-pointers in the first two meetings.
Mitchell noted after Wednesday’s win that he’d like to clone the effort he put up against Brooklyn’s Kyrie Irving, who was held to 14 points on 5-for-15 shooting.
“I just tried to stay in front of him,” Mitchell explained. “Tried not to reach, try not to give him any angles. I knew he was going to make some tough shots; he’s a great shot-maker. Just try to contain him throughout the game and get him tired.”
Mitchell also had 18 points in the win. Harrison Barnes, a member of Golden State’s 2015 championship team, paced the Kings with 19.
