Curry loses ball as Kings hold on to beat Warriors
SAN FRANCISCO -- Domantas Sabonis made a go-ahead dunk with 22 seconds left, Harrison Barnes had 39 points with back-to-back baskets in crunch time, and the Sacramento Kings held off the Golden State Warriors 134-133 on Thursday night to split their season series at two games each.
Stephen Curry threw an alley-oop to Jonathan Kuminga with 1:22 left that got Golden State within 132-131. Kuminga then rebounded a missed 3-pointer by De'Aaron Fox and dunked again for the lead.
But Kuminga missed with 18 seconds left, hoping he'd get a whistle. Sacramento's Kevin Huerter missed a pair of free throws with 15 seconds left to give the Warriors one last chance. Curry dribbled around the perimeter trying to get a look and lost the ball — a similar ending to the Warriors' 124-123 loss Nov. 28 when he turned the ball over late.
Fox added 29 points and five assists for Sacramento, which beat Atlanta 122-107 at home on Monday night to end a four-game losing streak.
Curry scored 33 points with six 3-pointers on a night the teams combined to hit 41 from long range. Curry made 5 of his first 7 3-pointers on the way to 18 points in the opening quarter, his season high for any period.
Kuminga scored a career-high 31 points in his career-best fifth straight game with 20 or more points, a night after his 11-for-11 performance matched Hall of Famer Chris Mullin for most made baskets without a miss.
Curry pulled Golden State within 122-121 on a layup with 4:45 left only for Fox to knock down consecutive 3s. Kuminga converted a 3-point play with 3:53 to go that made it 128-124.
This was another back-and-forth battle between the Northern California neighbors who went the distance in their first-round playoff series last spring before Curry scored 50 in Game 7 to send the Warriors to the Western Conference semifinals.
After playing three times between Oct. 27 and Nov. 28, Sacramento tried to make it two in a row after winning 124-123 at home in Golden 1 Center in that previous meeting almost two months ago.
Andrew Wiggins scored 17, Klay Thompson 16 and Dario Saric 14 as the Warriors completed an emotional 24 hours with back-to-back games after celebrating the life of assistant coach Dejan Milojević during Wednesday's 134-112 win over the Hawks a week after "Deki" as they called him died following a heart attack.
Kings coach Mike Brown wore a black "BRATE" shirt with Milojević's initials inside a heart the Warriors had made to honor him.
During warmups, Curry told rookie teammate Brandin Podziemski he wanted to bring New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu, the all-time 3-point contest record holder with 37 points, to town for a shootout.
Ionescu replied on X, formerly Twitter, with a message and emoji of two eyes looking: "Let's getttttt it!! See ya at the 3 pt line (at)StephenCurry30."
Curry now has 3,734 career defensive rebounds, moving him into second place in Warriors franchise history and past Larry Smith (3,731).
The two-time MVP also has scored at least 24 points in his last 25 games against the Kings in the regular season and playoffs — 15 of those with 30 or more, four 40-plus games and the 50-point performance.
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Warriors: Host the Lakers on Saturday night.
