Domantas Sabonis on Thursday made a go-ahead dunk with 22 seconds left, while Harrison Barnes scored a career-high 39 points with back-to-back baskets in crunch time as the Sacramento Kings held off the Golden State Warriors 134-133 to split their season series at two games each.
When Barnes starts feeling it, the Kings look for him in any spot he likes and in another wild game with the Warriors, they needed every bit of his best — including his timely block against Jonathan Kuminga in the tense closing moments.
“The way you have a high-powered offense is all five guys are going to have to make sacrifices at times,” Barnes said, crediting his team’s unselfishness.
Photo: AFP
Stephen Curry threw an alley-oop to Kuminga with 1 minute, 22 seconds left that got Golden State within one point at 132-131.
Kuminga then rebounded a missed three-pointer by De’Aaron Fox and dunked again for the lead.
After Sabonis’ dunk, Kuminga got blocked by Barnes with 18 seconds to go, hoping he would get a whistle.
The Kings’ Kevin Huerter missed a pair of free throws with 15 seconds remaining 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 on Nov. 28 last year when he turned the ball over late.
Curry said he probably should have called a timeout.
“The chaos of the moment you’re trying to make a play — sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t,” he said.
Fox added 29 points and five assists for Sacramento, who beat Atlanta 122-107 at home on Monday to end a four-game losing streak.
The Kings went to the hot hand in Barnes, who notched his second straight 30-point game.
“I think a lot of it just happens in the flow,” Fox said. “That’s kind of how he’s getting going and once he gets going there’s more of an effort to get him the ball in certain spots.”
Curry scored 33 points with six three-pointers on a night that the teams combined to hit 41 from long range.
Curry made five of his first seven three-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 minutes, 45 seconds left only for Fox to knock down consecutive threes.
Kuminga converted a three-point play with 3 minutes, 53 seconds to go that made it 128-124.
During warmups, Curry told rookie teammate Brandin Podziemski that he wanted to bring New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu, the all-time three-point contest record holder with 37 points, to town for a shootout.
Ionescu replied on X with a message and emoji of two eyes looking.
“Let’s getttttt it!! See ya at the 3 pt line (at)StephenCurry30,” she wrote.
Elsewhere on Thursday, it was:
‧ Heat 110, Celtics 143
‧ Knicks 122, Nuggets 84
‧ Lakers 141, Bulls 132
‧ Nets 94, Timberwolves 96
‧ Pacers 134, 76ers 122
‧ Wizards 108, Jazz 123
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