SACRAMENTO — There’s a reason why the Warriors dubbed this a dress rehearsal.
Rolling out the lineup they hope to use to escape from the play-in, nothing came easy for a group about as close to full strength as the Warriors hope to get heading into the postseason.
Steph Curry survived an early injury scare but was largely kept quiet for his second consecutive game, Kristaps Porzingis turned in one of his poorest shooting efforts of the season and Al Horford made little impact in limited minutes.
In theory, the debut of the three together should have guided Golden State to an easy win over one of the NBA’s worst teams, but it proved to be a struggle to put away the Kings in a 124-118 loss.
It was Kings guard Devin Carter who played a starring role with six 3-pointers for 29 points. The Warriors were led by two guards not named Curry: Brandin Podziemski with a career-best 30 points and De’Anthony Melton with 17 off the bench.
Curry was held to 11 points in 27 minutes and didn’t re-emerge after going into the tunnel midway through the fourth quarter. Porzingis connected on only four of 12 attempts from the field for 11 points and Horford failed to grab one rebound while scoring 10 points in 17 minutes.
What it means
The game provided coach Steve Kerr his first look at the team with Curry, Porzingis and Horford all healthy. Without the latter two on Tuesday, the Warriors struggled to put the Kings away at home, and despite possessing most of their missing puzzle pieces ran into trouble again.
Turning point
Whatever hopes the Warriors have for this postseason flashed before their eyes only minutes into the game when Carter blitzed Curry at halfcourt. He swiped the ball clean and sent Curry spinning to the ground, visibly shaken up.
All it amounted to, however, was a scare.
Curry appeared to tweak the same leg that has kept him out of all but three games since Jan. 30. But after a timeout and some attention from Rick Celebrini, the head of their medical staff, Curry remained in the game. He confirmed afterward that it was his ankle, not his knee, that was affected.
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Carter converted a reverse layup on the opening possession of the second half to extend the Kings’ lead to 65-51, their second-largest of the game, but the Warriors went on to score the following 12 points and took an 89-82 advantage into the final period.
Sacramento mounted a 14-2 run to flip a 98-92 Golden State lead into a 106-100 advantage with 5:16 to play, and the Warriors played from behind the rest of the way.
MVP: Brandin Podziemski
For the anticipation behind the debut of Curry, Horford and Porzingis together, the Warriors’ best player was the only one to play all of their 81 games so far.
Podziemski sank a free throw in the final seconds to reach 30 points for the first time in his career.
Stat of the game: 42
In their 81st game of the season, the Warriors used their 42nd different starting lineup.
With Curry, Porzingis and Horford all healthy at the same time for the first time all year, Kerr said before tipoff, “We’ve been looking forward to this.” He brought Horford off the bench and started Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos and Draymond Green alongside Curry and Porzingis.
They will only have one more dress rehearsal before the play-in, and the first didn’t go so well.
Still, there’s a reason why Kerr said the grouping is so “enticing” to Golden State.
“Lot of versatility, ball handling, shooting,” Kerr said. “Obviously Steph negates a lot of spacing issues, but with the spacing that we will have with Kristaps, there’s the potential that it could open things up for Steph, for BP, for Gui and his driving.”
Up next
Golden State gets one more tuneup Sunday against the Clippers, with tipoff set for 5:30 p.m. PT inside the Intuit Dome. After Los Angeles fell to the Blazers in Portland on Friday, the Clippers would be in line to host Golden State in the 9/10 play-in game if the Blazers beat the Kings on Sunday.
