The Warriors overcame themselves, the schedule, and the natural ebbs and flows of an NBA season to put themselves in position to win on their final possession Wednesday night and Klay Thompson delivered.
Thompson's pull-up 17-foot jumper gave the Warriors a 102-101 win over the Kings in the lone home game Golden State will play over a 17 day span.
The shot capped a near perfect final 1 minute 12 second stretch to close the game for the Warriors who trailed 99-96. Gary Payton II hit a 5-foot floater to pull the Warriors within one before the Warriors forced the Kings into a shot-clock violation with :38.4 remaining. Stephen Curry then went 2-for-1 driving into the lane for a floater of his own to give the Warriors the lead. Domantas Sabonis banked in a 20-footer with the shot-clock running down which set up the Warriors final attempt.
Here's Stephen Curry's reaction to to Klay Thompson's celebration during his postgame press conference.
The Warriors often appeared low energy and a step slow in this game coming off the three game road trip and facing at Kings team without leading scorer De'Aaron Fox. It was especially noticeable in the offensive rebounding department with Sacramento grabbing 14 of their own misses. The Warriors were able to dodge those extra opportunities for the Kings however with Sacramento converting the 14 chances into just 12 points. The Warriors scored 10 points of their own on half as many chances.
Golden State won grimy holding the Kings to 40.9% shooting for the game. With De'Aaron Fox out, Domantas Sabonis scored 23 points but Keegan Murray was held to 10 on 4-of-15 shooting and 0-for-7 from three and Kevin Huerter went 1-for-5 from downtown.
Dario Saric pitched in a season high 15 off the Warriors bench on 6-of-9 shooting and 3-for-5 from three. The Warriors reserves have outscored their opponents in each of the first five games this season. Steve Kerr discussed Saric brings to the Warriors.
Other Notes
-- The Warriors are 4-1 for the first time since the 2021-22 season.
-- The Warriors are 3 over .500 at 4-1. They weren't 3 over .500 until March 2nd last season when they were 33-30.
-- Klay Thompson's game winner was the third of his career in the final five seconds. Thompson hit a game winning layup vs. the Kings on 11/24/18 and a jumper to beat the Pacers on 3/4/14.
