And good lord, where did Marcus Thornton come from? We all remember him destroying the Warriors in the last meeting, and he hit a couple killer shots at the end of this one.

Now the Dubs head out to Denver — minus Monta Ellis — for the toughest back-to-back in the league. If they’re going to get that 36th win, chances are it’s going to have to come against Portland in the season finale.

Once again, I’ll be watching the matchup between the 5th and 6th players taken in this year’s draft. While Ekpe certainly has a lot to work on this summer (offense and rebounding in particular), he’s been a presence defensively and has even looked a bit better when shooting in recent games. Cousins has had his own ups and downs, but I still can’t shake the feeling that he’s exactly the sort of inside presence that the Warriors really need. So it would be nice to see Udoh win the matchup and give us something to feel good about tonight.

The rebounding was terrible one again, as the Warriors lost the boards battle 46-24 (no Warrior had more than 4). They also got destroyed in the paint, losing that battle by 28 as Dalembert had a career high.

Bright spots? Al Thornton had a solid outing, and looked unstoppable at times on his way to 23 points and a team-high +25. Ekpe also had a decent offensive turn, getting to double-digits at 10 points (but with a typically underwhelming single rebound).

But all-in-all this was yet another indictment of Smart. Part of being coach means having your team ready to play — especially in a back-to-back against a supposedly inferior opponent — and the Warriors were at the worst at the start of each half. Definitely looking forward to playing the coaching replacement game in a few more weeks…

With Cousins coming on strong the Warriors bigs will need another good performance, but if they can bring similar energy to what they did last night the team should be in good shape. I think Evans is still out so that should dampen the Kings’ scoring abilities a bit, so another strong defensive performance is there for the taking.

Just like last night, this is a game against a team the Warriors should beat handily. Nothing less than a win will do — and maybe they can do it without last minute heroics for once?

Look Familiar? (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)

For the second time this season, the Kings bail the Warriors out of a demoralizing loss by completely forgetting how to close a game. From 9 points down with about 3 minutes remaining, the Warriors got 3′s from Curry and then Monta, then, after trading a few scores, Monta made his second last minute shot in as many nights, this one to send the game to overtime (where the Warriors quickly pulled away from the deflated visitors).

The Kings opened the door by doing a nice impression of a college team, making only 3 of 6 foul shots in the closing minutes. Still, that distracts from the fact that the Kings were dominating the Warriors from the line until the closing minutes of regulation (it was something like 30-10 in FTA’s at one point, and even with the Kings fouling at the end of overtime they still made it to the line 17 times more than the Warriors).

Monta got the glory — but also an ankle injury, which according to the beat writers isn’t too serious but could still keep him out of tonight’s game against the Clippers — but it was Curry who had perhaps the most important game for the Warriors’ future success. He broke the 30 mark for the first time since December 5 at Oklahoma City, and did so with 8 fewer shot attempts than Monta (providing evidence for Feltbot’s theory that Curry would outscore Monta if he got the same number of shots — will be interesting to see how he plays tonight if Monta sits out with the ankle).

David Lee had a solid double-double, and Dorell Wright came up big on the glass with 12 rebounds to go with his 13 points. Biedrins, on the other hand, did little to respond to Lacob’s implied criticism in some of his recent interviews, with 4 points and 5 rebounds and a team low -14 before he fouled out in only 24 minutes. Yikes.

The bench was fairly quiet in this game, with Gadzuric making the most memorable appearance after Biedrins fouled out near the end of regulation. Gadzuric missed a point blank layup in the closing minute, though he did post a +16 so he wasn’t all bad. Especially if you compare it to Brandon Wright’s -10 in just 3 minutes. If there’s one thing Wright is consistent at, it’s being inconsistent.

So the Warriors avert disaster, and now get a bit of a freebie game tonight in LA against the Clippers (though it would still be nice to win another before San Antonio comes to town on Monday). Their propensity for playing down to their competition is getting a bit concerning, as they are coming off three straight wins that were way closer than they should have been. Still, a win is a win, and the Dubs now have their first 4-game winning streak in three years. They’re back within 4 games of .500, and trail Portland by 4 games in the standings for the 8th and final playoff spot. Can’t complain too much about that, given the recent history of this franchise.

• Play like the better team — this time, for reals. Perhaps it was a bit much to expect a blowout on Wednesday against a well-coached Pacers squad, but tonight there really are no excuses. Sacramento is on a slide, and with a game tomorrow night in LA against the Clippers it would be great to give the starters a bit of rest.
• More of the Wright stuff. Brandon Wright was the surprise contributor against Indiana, with 6 points and 12 big minutes. Let’s see if he’s the first big off the bench, or at the very least gets some run in the second quarter. I’d still be shocked if he ever becomes a consistent contributor for the dubs, but at the very least I’d love to see him build his trade value up from its current negative value.
• 5 vs. 6. I don’t expect Udoh to get much in terms of minutes, but when he’s in there I hope to see him guard Cousins. Could be a good matchup for Udoh, as Cousins’ relative rawness means he won’t be pulling any crafty veteran moves on Udoh. A solid block or two could go a long way toward easing the pain of last season’s late “run” that gave the Warriors the 6th pick instead of the 5th.

(Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)

Well, how about that! VladRad makes up for A LOT with that deep bomb to tie the game (not to mention 13 4th quarter points), and it was enough to forget that the Warriors gave up two monster runs to a horrible Kings team.

For the first time, they were able to fully climb their way out of a deep hole of their own making. Sure, the game shouldn’t have been this close, but I think Lauridsen put it best: “Meeting exceptionally modest expectations is still better than collapsing below them.”

I’m wondering if Smart started reading Feltbot, as for the second straight game the Warriors had 31 fast break points. That made up for getting beat on the glass, as the Kings managed to break into triple digits on field goal attempts — but only hit 39%.

Monta’s efficiency was way down but he still carried the scoring load for the team, and his circus shot near the end of overtime was one of his all-time best. Reggie Williams also regained his touch, scoring 24 points and almost making us forget his 1-3 from the line in the closing seconds of regulation.

The Cousins-Udoh matchup I was looking forward to didn’t turn into much: Cousins struggled from the field but was still a beast on the glass. Udoh cooled off from last night and didn’t score a point (didn’t even take a shot), and it’s pretty clear that he was winded by the end of his run (as any human being would be after playing nearly 50 NBA minutes in 26 hours after logging just 8 in the previous 8 months). While Udoh’s -9 was the worst on the squad, I still like his activity and great hands. Plus, he’s avoiding something that has plagued every rookie Warriors big man that I can remember: constant fouls (and it’s not like he’s avoiding physical contact).

So now the Warriors get a few days off before their Christmas night matchup against the Trail Blazers (think the NBA schedulers wish they could have this one back?). By all accounts Curry should be back, and hopefully we’ll see Biedrins back on the court as well. Maybe then we can get the minutes smoothed out a bit more — Law backing up Curry, Reggie subbing for Monta but still providing some scoring punch, Amundson down to the low-minute energy guy that he should be (how about his 6 fouls in 13 minutes tonight?), and maybe even some VladRad and Carney at the 3 to get Wright down to about 30 minutes a night.

But for now, good to get a win that the Warriors HAD to have. It was more stressful/exciting than it should have been, but at this point in the season, with postseason chances slipping away with every turnover (seriously, can anyone catch an interior pass on this team?), I’ll take it.

DNP-CD for Brandon Wright doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

Will be interesting to actually see this team play — their first televised preseason game is on ESPN a week from Friday.

Time for the back end of a home-and-home as the Warriors and Kings do it all over again in Sacramento. Here’s what to look for tonight:

• Can Monta’s D continue to frustrate Tyreke Evans? He got props for his defense on Evans in Sunday’s game, so it will be interesting to see if Evans tries to make a statement right back tonight.
• Jeff Adrien vs. Aaron Miles for the 15th roster spot. With Vernon Goodridge being waived yesterday, it appears it will come down to Adrien and Miles. Miles fills the greater need (a backup PG who can spell Curry for 10-15 minutes a night), but if Adrien can keep up his rebounding and continue playing tough interior defense it will be tough to let a guy like that go.
• Will Andris Biedrins show up? So far it’s been a quiet preseason for Biedrins, though he did have 10 rebounds in the first preseason game. Not the greatest defensive matchup against the size of the Kings’ front line, but it would be nice to see him return the favor and use his quickness to get a bit more active on offense (and show some flashes of the “old” Biedrins).