Warriors fans came in from the Bay Area again to support their team and talk trash about the Kings in their own house, again. Last time they got away with it. It was an electric atmosphere as usual. Fans colliding for the regional match-up. The Kings, however, were once again shorthanded. Ron Artest(stiff elbow), Spencer Hawes (strained foot) and John Salmons (sprained ankle) were feared to be out for the game. Instead, Hawes and starting point guard Beno Udrih (strained back) were out. Udrih was a surprise out of nowhere, and the Kings had a tall order up against them, but back-up PG Anthony Johnson would fill in the void with maybe his best performance as a King, ever.
1ST QUARTER
Johnson, drafted by the Kings in 1997, got his first start with the team in 10 years, filling in for the injured Udrih. Martin started up the game with a dunk, but the Warriors' team play struck back making 2 staight shots. Martin and Artest led the attack against Baron Davis and Al Harrington in a dead heat between 2 hot teams. Stephen Jackson left because he had 3 early fouls in the game. At the end of the quarter, the Warriors had the edge 29-31.
2ND QUARTER
It was the Kings bench's turn with Francisco Garcia, Quincy Douby and Shelden Williams came out to score the first points for the team. A little after Douby's dunk ot was the Kevin Martin show. Martin had 2 straight alley-oops from AJ, and the Kings had 4 straight offensive rebounds resulting in Brad Miller making the last shot in.
Despite their effort, Kelenna Azubuike had 10 points to help keep the game close. Azubuike got booed as he hit Martin trying to get a missed free throw. After that, Davis and Artest exchanged some words. Golden State Warrior vs. Tru Warrier. Artest was thrown with a technical already but kept his cool. Martin had 11 points in the quarter on 3/4 shooting. Johnson had 7 assists in the half. The Kings had a slight edge of 61-57.
3RD QUARTER
The Kings absolutely took control control late in the quarter, as they dominated the Warriors. They've been good in the 3rd quarter this year, especially when they erased a 23 point deficit in the third quarter against the Heat. AJ and BDArtest and Martin were a tandem, with Martin getting 11 points and Artest with 8 points.
All night everything Artest put up turned into gold. Fade-aways, 3 pointers, jumpers leaning left and right, all going in. The Warriors' 3 pt shooting was ice cold. They were 1-6 in the quarter and 5-27 for the whole game. The Kings went up by as much as 22 points silencing the visiting fans from Oakland with a 40 point quarter. Despite giving up a huge lead, the Warriors had one more run in them.
4TH QUARTER
At the beginning, it looked like the Kings had the game locked up, but Brandan Wright and Matt Barnes led a late attack from the bench leading up to a 17-2 run to cut the Kings' lead to 6 points, down from 22 points. The Kings had lost all of their momentum. All that changed with a huge Mikki Moore dunk on Azubuike which helped send the Kings on a 15-0 run, and the last play was another dunk by Moore to cap the game for the Kings beating Golden State 122-105.
HIGHLIGHTS
*=Team High
**=Game High
KINGS
Martin: 34 pts**, 7 reb, 2 stl, 2 ast
Artest: 26 pts, 5 reb (2 off.), 3 stl**, blk, ast
Johnson: 13 pts, 13 ast**, 6 reb, blk
Moore: 19 pts, 10 reb, 3 blk**
Miller: 14 pts, 13 reb**, 3 ast, blk, stl
Garcia: 8 pts, 4 reb, 2 blk, ast (bench)
Salmons: 2 pts (reverse lay-up buzzer beater before halftime), 3 reb (bench)
Douby: 4 pts, ast (bench)
WARRIORS
Davis: 24 pts*, 8 ast*, 2 reb, stl
Azubuike: 12 pts, 8 reb* (4 off.), 2 ast (bench)
Biedrins: 13 pts, 8 reb*
Jackson: 9 pts, 6 reb, 3 stl**, 3 ast
Harrington: 10 pts, 3 reb, 2 stl
Barnes: 8 pts, 6 reb (4 off.), stl (bench)
Ellis: 11 pts, 2 reb, ast
Wright: 8 pts, 2 off. reb, 2 blk* (bench)
Pietrus: 6 pts, 2 reb, blk, stl (bench)
While Warriors fans were sent back to the Bay Area shaking their heads to the loss, the Warriors were sent packing to L.A. to face the Clippers the next day. The Kings would go to sleep, winners of 4 out of the last 5 games, beating the Lakers, Blazers, Raptors and losing only to the Suns. They face the Spurs on Friday to look for their 5th win in 6 games.
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