The Warriors' 3-point rush reveals early concerns about the Kings

Warriors' 3-point frenzy reveals early concerns for Kings originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SACRAMENTO — If this were the regular season, the Kings would have been on the wrong side of history Wednesday night.

The Golden State Warriors made 28 3-pointers in their 122-112 preseason win over Sacramento at Golden 1 Center, surpassing their franchise record of 27 in the regular season.

A good sign for the new-look Warriors, who are hoping to get back to their sniping style without franchise icon Klay Thompson. A bad decision for the Kings, who are still searching for their defensive talent.

“Thank God this is preseason because I think we would be in the record books for three-pointers made,” Kings coach Mike Brown said after the game. “That’s where it started for us, of course. We didn't do a good job communicating, we didn't do a good job with our ball pressure, we didn't do a good job with our physicality, and that's why they were getting open looks from the 3-point line because we were bad at everything were these things.

“If you don't protect your man and watch the ball, if he doesn't have the ball, if he's moving, he's going to hit you because he knows if he's moving, you're reacting to him.” And that's why our physicality has to be better become. Our communication and control situations, whether on the ball or off the ball, have to improve.”

Former Kings guard Buddy Hield was 6 of 7 from distance off the bench. De'Anthony Melton and Jonathan Kuminga each added four 3s. Steph Curry and Lindy Waters III added three.

Golden State, a known high-speed 3-point team, shot 28 of 52 (53.8 percent) from distance. But the Kings didn't do much to challenge those efforts.

Brown estimated that of the 52 three-pointers the Warriors attempted, about 30 were “wide open,” leaving them no choice but to punish the Kings' defenders and put the rock high and in.

Here are a few examples:

“We got cracked too many times,” Brown said, “and then we didn’t talk and two guys went with the guy diving to the rim and left one guy open or vice versa.”

Kings third-year forward Keegan Murray, a true connoisseur of the game who has grown accustomed to Brown's defensive dreams over the past two years, spoke to reporters after the game in front of his coach, but almost exactly echoed Brown's exact defensive fears.

“Yeah, I mean a lot of the guys are making shots. Just watching and looking back, I think it was just a lot of miscommunication and them not being physical enough off the ball, which led to a lot of their open, uncontested 3s,” Murray said. “I think that’s why we play in preseason, so we can clean up things like that.”

TRUE.

And that's exactly what they will do. The Kings will practice Thursday before traveling 80 miles southwest to San Francisco to face the same team Friday night at Chase Center.

Wild guess? They will focus on their 3-point defense ahead of the preseason rematch.

As Murray confirmed, pre-season is the time to clarify outstanding questions. Although facing the Warriors again is a small sample size and a quick turnaround, it could be a good way to measure the progress made in this area before the real fun begins in the regular season.

Kings star point guard De'Aaron Fox, who continues to make defensive strides with each passing season, didn't mince his words about the team's defensive performance in Wednesday's loss, but did point out some positives.

“We definitely need to defend the 3-point line better,” Fox said after the game. “I think they made almost 30, yeah, 28 threes. We have to be much better. And I mean, we only allowed 13 free throws, which is a great number. Obviously they only made six, but even if they did, they made 13 shots, sending the team to the finish line just 13 times in the game, but more than half of the shots they took were three-pointers. We have to be better at that.

“And then just giving up four offensive rebounds helps us. But I mean, they shot almost 55 percent (from the field), so not a lot of opportunities for them. So we have to be better in that regard – especially in protecting the three-point line.”

With the addition of DeMar DeRozan this offseason, there's no telling what heights this team can reach offensively, especially six-time NBA All-Star Fox and Domantas Sabonis.

Defensively, however, there are a few question marks about how effective this starting lineup could be with the three players listed above in addition to Murry and Keon Ellis.

Brown knows there are things he needs to work on, but he gave an overall assessment of this first unit's defensive performance.

“Good in spurts,” Brown said of defending his starters. “I thought those guys did some nice things in spurts on the defensive side of the ball, but the most important thing is that the physicality and the communication in this group needs to increase with this group.”

“We will find ways to score. And, you know, we still got Kevin (Huerter) out, we got Trey (Lyles) out. So we'll find ways to score. We'll have that.” But what matters is that we're great defensively, which we haven't been able to do for a long time – and that goes for our first unit too.”

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