The Sacramento Kings will seek a measure of revenge against the visiting Golden State Warriors on Friday night.
The Warriors rolled to a 120-100 win at Sacramento in Game 7 of their first-round playoff series in April to eliminate the third-seeded Kings and end their fairy-tale season.
Golden State, seeded sixth, went on to lose to the seventh-seeded Los Angeles Lakers in the Western semifinals.
The Kings (48-34) finished four games ahead of the Warriors (44-38) in the regular season en route, ending their 16-year playoff drought.
In its season opener Wednesday, Sacramento picked up right where it left off last season, beating the Utah Jazz 130-114 on the road behind 19 3-pointers.
Former Warriors forward Harrison Barnes led the barrage with 33 points, hitting 5 of 7 from beyond the arc.
“We were getting a lot of catch-and-shoot threes, a lot of corner catch-and-shoot threes,” Barnes said. “Anytime you can manufacture those by just ball movement, I think that was huge for us and kind of allowed us to get into a good rhythm.”
Nine Kings players recorded at least one assist on a night the team totaled 29. Malik Monk was the team leader with seven off the bench, while De’Aaron Fox had six to go with 18 points and Domantas Sabonis five to complement a 22-point, 12-rebound outing.
The Warriors struggled from deep in their season-opening, 108-104 home loss to the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday. Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry, who finished first and third, respectively, in the NBA in made 3-pointers last season, each missed at least eight, helping drag down Golden State’s percentage to 23.3 (10-for-43).
Curry finished with 27 points despite going 4-for-14 from beyond the arc, while Thompson added 15 amid 3-for-11 shooting on threes.
Chris Paul had a game-high nine assists in his Golden State debut, but missed all six of his 3-point attempts and finished with 14 points.
The veteran said afterward he’s looking forward to shooting even more 3-pointers as he gets more familiar with Golden State’s championship-winning cast.
“There were a lot of good things that we did; there were a lot of not-so-great things,” he said. “But the freedom — the pull-up threes that I got the chance to shoot when you are playing with guys that shoot the ball as well as Steph and KIay. The more games, the more comfortable you are (going to be) being aggressive.”
The Warriors played without Draymond Green, who suffered a sprained left ankle prior to the start of training camp. Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Green will not play against the Kings, but will accompany the team on a trip to Houston (Sunday) and New Orleans (Monday), with the hope of making his debut on the road.
–Field Level Media
