SAN FRANCISCO -- New building, new team.
The Golden State Warriors are a shadow of the team that just represented the Western Conference at five straight NBA Finals. Since moving to the Chase Center, they are now just 5-23, including a 100-79 blowout loss to the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
Kings learned a big lesson in their loss to the Knicks on Friday, which they didn’t repeat against the Warriors. They got up big early on a lesser opponent and didn’t let up.
Here are three takeaways as the Kings hammered the Warriors to move to 12-14 on the season.
Bogi got hot
Golden State went on a mini-run early in the fourth quarter and then Bogdan Bogdanovic took over.
NBA
Sacramento’s super-sub dropped in a pair of triples with just under eight minutes to play to take a commanding 90-65 lead.
After a disappointing bench performance in the Kings’ loss to the Knicks Friday night, Sacramento’s second unit, led by Bogdanovic’s 25, outscored the Warriors’ by a final of 48-30.
In Rhythm
Buddy Hield didn’t post his 11th straight 20 point game, but the Kings’ leading scorer seems to have settled back into a shooting groove.
In 33 minutes of action, the Kings’ leading scorer dropped in 19 points on 8-of-11 from the field and 2-for-5 from 3-point range.
Hield’s had to carry way too much of the scoring load for Sacramento with all of the early season injuries and he’s struggled to get to the free-throw line, but when he is on, he’s one of the best pure shooters in the league.
Building confidence
In his third game back from injury, Marvin Bagley is beginning to look more like the player the Kings saw last season.
The high flying big posted his best game of the season, finishing with 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting to go with 6 rebounds. He was active in his 22 minutes and even showed some improvements on the defensive end.
In addition to the points and rebounds, Bagley picked up his first assist of the season. This is an area where Bagley needs to improve if he’s going to see an uptick in minutes.
After playing primarily at power forward last season, Walton is focused on using Bagley at the five, at least until he gets comfortable in the team’s system.