The Golden State Warriors prove again they are the daddy of the Sacramento Kings | Opinion

Who is the daddy of the Sacramento Kings?

The Golden State Warriors. They beat the Kings three games out of four in the regular season last year. They beat the Kings in a seven-game series the Kings really should have won in the first round of the NBA playoffs last season.

Opinion

And led by the legend of Steph Curry and his 41 points, the Warriors beat the Kings at Golden 1 Center Friday night 122-114, in Sacramento’s home opener that sometimes evoked some of the most dismal elements of the Game 7 playoff loss here last April. The only saving grace was that the Kings played hard to the end.

It was less a Warriors beatdown than it was a Kings meltdown. The game showed experience beats enthusiasm, details trump desire. Here we saw championship DNA swamp post-season aspirations.

Yes, the Kings made a late run at the end to make the score more flattering.

Yes, this was only the second game of 82 in a season of intense hopes in Sacramento.

And, yes, the Kings could easily finish ahead of a Warriors team that is old and small and could break down as the grind of the NBA season takes its toll.

But right now, at this moment, this regional rivalry is a rout. The Warriors rule and the Kings drool.

Curry wouldn’t even call it a rivalry.

In the ESPN postgame interview, Curry deliberated on the word.

“It’s a great, I wouldn’t call it a rivalry,” he said. “But it’s a great familiarity of knowing a team.”

“Familiarity.” That has to hurt.

He talked about many times the Warriors face off with the Kings, including playing in the Sacramento “hostile environment” that makes him want to do well.

“You get to know ‘em,” he said. “They’re a tough team, young, super talented.”

And, in a familiar way, he beat them again.

Warriors dominate, mostly

For a time in the fourth quarter, it was like child’s play. It was a buzzkill, with the Warriors dominating every facet of the game and the Kings playing like they were a JV team getting schooled by the varsity.

Based on their strong, solid defeat of the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City the game before this one, the Kings have plenty of reason to still hope for a great season. And maybe their inability to impose their will on the Warriors will be a motivating force as fall turns to winter and then to spring.

But this was galling, and the Warriors didn’t even have Draymond Green, the villain of games past, in uniform Friday.

Early, the action was intense, if ragged. Klay Thompson and Chris Paul, both key to the Warriors’ hopes this season, were scoreless after the first quarter and the Warriors were mostly missing their 3-point shots. The Kings were shooting better but Warriors center Kevon Looney was still causing size and strength problems for Kings center Damantas Sabonis.

As the second quarter progressed, the Kings grew careless and turned the ball over six times, particularly down the stretch. Davion Mitchell was trying to guard Curry, perhaps the hardest job in the world of sports, and it showed.

Mitchell was scoreless at the half. He had turned the ball over twice and Curry led all scorers with 18 points.

Kings coach Mike Brown was asked last May, as Curry went off in Game 7, why he didn’t use Mitchell more to guard Curry that day as he obliterated the Kings playoff hopes. The answer came Friday night: It doesn’t matter who you put on Curry when he plays like he can play.

Curry’s clinic

Brown gave Curry several different defensive looks, but Curry had 21 points by early in the third quarter. Who guarded him didn’t matter. Early in the third, he was getting what he wanted. With 5:24 left in the third, Curry hit another 3-point shot and was fouled. He made his free throw, putting the Warriors up by 11. It would get worse.

By late in the third quarter, Curry had 34 points and was clearly in the mood for more.

Like the most critical moments of last season’s playoff series between these two, it was hard to tell which team is the younger, more athletic squad.

The Warriors were smarter and playing harder. The Kings were frenetic, but out of control.

Starting in the second quarter and extending into the third, the Kings were just playing poorly — losing the handle on the ball, missing layups, missing free throws, losing duels underneath the basket and arriving too late for loose balls.

When Thompson hit a 3-point shot after a careless Malik Monk turnover near the end of the third, the Kings were down by 15 and Brown called a timeout. He stalked onto the court with his hands in his pockets.

By the end of the third, that lead still held — 99-84 Warriors. The Kings did have five players in double digits by that point, but Kevin Heurter was invisible with zero points. Heurter’s specialty is 3-point shooting, which seemed to abandon the Kings as the game moved to its late stages.

Keegan Murray continued playing with enhanced confidence and physicality. Murray has shown quite the progression from the sometimes tentative waif he was at the point a year ago in his rookie year. De’Aaron Fox had 39 in a losing effort and just keeps proving that he is one of the elite players in the league.

But it’s still Curry’s world. And this rivalry – or Curry’s “familiarity,” or whatever it is — still belongs to the Warriors.