The Golden State Warriors fell to 5-8 on the season with a 122-115 loss at Sacramento on Sunday. The good news? They're 5-1 at home. The bad news, they've yet to win a single game away from Chase Center, marking the first time since 1989 that Golden State has started a season 0-7 on the road.
The Warriors tried to make another fourth-quarter run after pulling off some late magic against the Cavaliers on Friday, but the Kings were selling out to make anyone other than Stephen Curry beat them late, and nobody could. Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins and Donte DiVincenzo all missed critical 3s and De'Aaron Fox banked multiple clutch buckets to secure the win for the Kings, who are a lot better than their 5-6 record would suggest.
The Kings, who have the sixth-best offense in the league, and they could easily be at least 8-4 given the way they've been burned by multiple late-game missed calls, one of which came in a loss to the Warriors in San Francisco last week.
Fox, who finished with 22 points and eight assists on 10-of-19 shooting, and Domantas Sabonis, who went for 25 points, 22 boards and eight assists, were terrific for Sacramento. Kevin Huerter, who is shooting better than 50 percent from 3 for the season, and the Kings' sharpshooting rookie Keegan Murray combined for 37 points on 9-of-15 3-point shooting.
Curry led the Warriors with 27 points followed by Andrew Wiggins with 26. Golden State will gets its next shot at its first road win at Phoenix on Wednesday. It will be a tough test. We know how good Phoenix is, even without Chris Paul, and specifically Curry has a checkered history when being defended by Mikal Bridges, who guards the two-time MVP tougher than anyone in the league.
The Warriors have real issues right now. Having Curry can cover for a lot on any given night, but over time, Golden State trying to get by with a bottom-10 defense and one of the worst benches in the league is a tall order. They'll get it right. Thompson will find his form eventually. Jordan Poole will get hot. But these are tough early losses in a Western Conference playoff race where a few games could end up separating a potential top-four seed from a play-in team.
