Matt Steinmetz

The Sacramento Kings had a couple of things going against them on Wednesday night when they played the Golden State Warriors. First off, the Warriors were coming off a blowout loss on Monday to the Denver Nuggets. Second, the last time these teams played — less than two weeks ago — the Kings knocked off the Warriors in overtime.

To top it all off, Warriors coach Steve Kerr made it clear during the team’s shoot-around that he wanted this game — the final one before the All-Star break.

So it made total sense that the Warriors handled the Kings 109-86 at Oracle, and headed into the all-star break with an NBA-best 47-9 record. Only it wasn’t as easy as you might think. The Warriors were sluggish to start the game, and it lingered into the second quarter.

Link to “Warriors WrapUp,” the postgame show on 95.7-FM The Game.

It didn’t help that Draymond Green was ejected late in the second quarter after picking up two technical fouls.

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Had a chance to talk a lot of Warriors with Mitch and Pitch on ESPN Las Vegas 1100/100.9-FM. We touched on several topics, including the Warriors’ letdown against the Denver Nuggets, the reaction of Oklahoma City fans for Kevin Durant’s return and whether or not the passion is still there for the Warriors — and their fans, and plenty more.

Link to interview with Mitch and Pitch on ESPN Las Vegas 1100/100.9-FM.

We also hit on Warriors rookie Patrick McCaw, who played his college ball at UNLV.

–For as much as players try to downplay the importance of certain games, it’s obvious that Saturday’s Warriors-Thunder game was a biggie. How else can you explain both teams getting absolutely blown out in their next game? The Nuggets hammered Golden State and the Wizards drilled OKC on Monday.

It’s impossible to get up for every game. In the Warriors’ case, it wasn’t just beating OKC, it was beating Memphis the night before. Memphis had beaten the Warriors twice already this season, so that made it back-to-back emotional games for Golden State. They couldn’t muster one more big-time effort at Denver on Monday.

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If I played Stephen Curry 100 times in H-O-R-S-E, I might be able to beat him a game or two. OK, maybe not a game of H-O-R-S-E, but maybe a game of P-I-G. But I’ll bet there would be one game where Curry was just off, and maybe that one time, I was shooting the lights out. It’s possible.

What I’m saying is that every once in a while, Curry can struggle, he just won’t have it, he can’t buy one, if you will. Those games tend to be a tad infrequent and they mostly get lost amid his slew of good and great games.

I’ll link to “Warriors WrapUp when it becomes available.

Curry went 0-for-10 from beyond the arc against the Lakers earlier this season, and had a 1-for-11 against Milwaukee and an 0-for-8 against the Clippers. He’s also susceptible the periodic high-turnover game, though less this year because he’s handling it less. But he had an eight-turnover game against Detroit, including six in the first quarter.

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