Kings offense unloads on Wolves
Sacramento has exceptional 3-point shooting in 45-point fourth quarter against Minnesota
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. – The nadir for this Wolves season came in Sacramento on Nov. 9. That was the night the Wolves concluded a winless five-game road trip, coach Tom Thibodeau pledged things had to change while Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler said in a somber locker room the Wolves needed to handle criticism better.
The Wolves traded Butler the next day and the season started trending upward thanks to a lengthy homestand. But despite the good vibes, the Wolves now find themselves leaving Sacramento amid another downswing in their season after the Kings caught fire in the fourth quarter of a 141-130 Wolves loss at the Golden1 Center. The 141 points were the most an opponent scored on the Wolves this season.
Sacramento hit six of its first seven 3-pointers – three each from Yogi Farrell and Buddy Hield -- in the fourth quarter to build a 17-point lead that withstood a late Wolves run. Nemanja Bjelica hit a 3-pointers to put the Kings ahead 133-125 with 1 minute, 41 seconds to play, ending the Wolves’ comeback effort. He burned his former team with 25 points on 9 of 15 shooting as the Wolves fell to 0-3 on this four-game road trip and dropped another game to a Western Conference foe in playoff contention. The Wolves will try to salvage a win on this trip on Saturday in Phoenix. Andrew Wiggins had 25 to lead the Wolves while Derrick Rose had 20 off the bench.
The Kings led 19-12 in the first
quarter before the Wolves began finding a rhythm.
Wiggins took advantage of his athleticism and got to the basket for 12 early points and the Wolves needed them because their defense didn’t arrive in the opening 12 minutes.
The Kings went 12 of 22 in the quarter and led 3531. It marked just the third time since the Butler trade that the Wolves allowed 35 or more in a quarter. It happened seven times prior to the trade, according to Basketball Reference. The Kings then scored 45 in the fourth.
Part of the Kings’ success had to do with their ability to dictate pace. They entered the night as the second-fastest team in the NBA.
Perhaps part of it had to do with the recovering Robert Covington. Covington was playing his second game after missing Saturday’s game against Portland because of right knee soreness and coach Tom Thibodeau tried to limit his minutes in the second quarter. Instead of Covington starting the game with the bench, Josh Okogie got those minutes, with Covington instead coming in halfway through the quarter.
In one sequence during the second quarter, Covington missed a layup and the Kings raced down the floor, but Covington stayed behind. The possession turned into an open 3-pointer for Hield. Covington would bounce back in the second half, scoring 15 of his 17 points.
The Kings came at the Wolves in waves for the rest of the second quarter and got contributions up and down the roster to lead 63-50 at the half.
Out of the locker room, the Wolves looked like a different team and ripped off the first 11 points of the third quarter with Taj Gibson contributing an emphatic slam during the run.
OAKLAND – The Warriors have three lethal shooters and only one ball. So how do they make sure Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson get their touches without making the other two feel jealous?
Quite well, actually. The Warriors (19-9) enter Wednesday’s game against the Toronto Raptors (22-7) with Curry, Durant and Thompson all averaging 19.7 shot attempts per game. No wonder Durant said, “I love the way we play.”
“Evenly distributed among the best shooters and scorers on the team,” Durant said without any hint of surprise following morning shootaround on Wednesday. “I think that’s also a huge credit to our teammates that set screens and pass to us and allow us to be who we are out there. I don’t see that changing.”
Granted, there are some extra layers behind the numbers. When Curry missed 11 games this season because of a strained left groin, both Durant (23.5) and Thompson (22.5) averaged more attempts than their regular-season average. Durant took a team-leading 31 shots in a loss to Toronto on Nov. 29 and Thompson had a team-leading 31 shots in an overtime loss to the Clippers on Nov. 12.
But that does not diminish the story behind the Warriors’ three stars averaging the same number of shots per game.
“It’s right on brand with who we are as players. We get them up and try to be effective as scorers as much as possible,” Durant said. “That’s how it rolls out sometimes. That is pretty weird to see the same exact shots. But that’s how we play and it’s the flow of the game. I’m sure it’ll stay that way.”
It has stayed that way while the Warriors have also become efficient.
Curry has averaged 30.1 points while shooting 51.3 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range, and his teammates believe he can sustain that quality of perimeter shooting. Durant has mostly improved his marks recently from the perimeter in the past three games against Minnesota (4 of 7), Milwaukee (1 of 6) and Cleveland (4 of 7), citing improvement in holding his follow through longer and reducing his fadeaways. Still, Durant jokingly told a reporter, “don’t jinx me; let me relax and chill.”
Meanwhile, Thompson has averaged 22 points while shooting 44.1 percent from the field and 43.8 percent since Curry’s return in the past five games. That marks a vast improvement from when he had mixed efficiency from the field (46.5 percent) and from 3-point range (36.6) in 14 games in November. Or when Thompson opened the first seven regular-season games going a combined 44 of 111 from the field (39.6 percent) and 5 of 36 from the perimeter (13.9 percent). That slump subsided, though, when Thompson broke Curry’s NBA record for most 3-pointers in a game against Chicago on Oct. 29, hitting 14 of 18 shots from beyond the arc and 29 attempts overall.
Therefore, the Warriors break out of shooting quotas to ride the hot hand. Otherwise, they worry more about moving the ball than figuring out who is touching it.