The Sacramento Kings suffered another fourth-quarter collapse as their losing streak continued with another blowout loss.
Steph Curry scored 27 points to lead the Golden State Warriors to a 137-103 victory over the Kings on Friday night before a sellout crowd of 18,064 at Chase Center in San Francisco.
The game was tied with three minutes left in the third quarter, but the Kings were outscored 53-19 over the last 15 minutes of the contest.
De’Anthony Melton came off the bench to score 19 points for the Warriors (21-18). Jimmy Butler III had 15 points, six rebounds and six assists.
DeMar DeRozan scored 24 points to lead the Kings (8-30), who have lost seven in a row and 17 of their last 20. Zach Lavine and Dennis Schroder scored 15 points apiece.
Kings coach Doug Christie used his 20th different starting lineup of the season with Keon Ellis joining Russell Westbrook in the backcourt, which moved LaVine into the frontcourt with DeRozan and Maxime Raynaud.
Christie also made another notable change with Malik Monk logging rotational minutes after sitting out the previous three games. Monk scored eight points, going 4 of 10 from the field and 0 of 4 from 3-point range.
Halftime report
Both teams came out firing during a fast-paced first quarter. Golden State led 23-19 after going 9 of 13 from the field and 3 of 5 from 3-point range over the first seven minutes. The Warriors led 34-29 after shooting 65% in the opening period.
Monk provided a spark off the bench for Sacramento, scoring twice as part of a 6-0 run that put the Kings up 35-34 early in the second quarter. The Kings went up 41-38 on a bucket by DeRozan, but the Warriors responded with a 14-5 run to take a 52-46 lead on a putback basket by Butler.
The Kings came back to cut the deficit to one on a few occasions late in the first half. They trailed 63-59 at the halftime break. Curry led all scorers with 18 points in the opening half. LaVine and DeRozan scored 11 points apiece.
Second-half summary
The Kings tied the game twice at the start of the second half, but Curry hit three 3-pointers in a span of 3:05 as the Warriors opened up an 81-74 lead. The Kings came back to tie the game with Schroder scoring six consecutive points as part of a 10-3 run for Sacramento.
The Kings seemed to have seized the momentum, but the Warriors finished the third quarter with a flourish, outscoring Sacramento 13-0 over the final 2:54. Melton keyed the run for Golden State, scoring nine points during that stretch.
The Warriors carried that momentum into the fourth quarter, outscoring the Kings 23-8 over the first 6:20 to build up an insurmountable 120-92 lead.
Kuminga watch
The Kings and Warriors have been engaged in trade talks involving Jonathan Kuminga since last summer with recent reports suggesting those talks are ongoing with the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline fast approaching.
During his pregame press conference, Warriors coach Steve Kerr fielded a number of questions about Kuminga, who hasn’t played since Dec. 18 after starting the first 12 games of the season.
“I’m disappointed for him that things didn’t continue to go the way they did the fist couple of weeks,” Kerr said. “At the same time, it was going to be tricky to start JK, Jimmy, Draymond at the two, three and four. I think anybody can see that’s a tough combination based on shooting.
“Sometimes Steph can just offset every spacing obstacle in your way. He’s that good, but in the modern NBA I think it’s going to be tough to do that, and I think we recognized that. We gave that lineup several weeks, and eventually the weaknesses of the lineup were exposed, and that’s why we went in a different direction.”
Up next
The Kings will return to Sacramento to open a season-long seven-game homestand when they play host to the Houston Rockets on Sunday at Golden 1 Center.
The Rockets (22-12) visit the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday night.
The Kings have played the Rockets twice this season, losing 121-95 in Houston on Dec. 3 before earning a 125-124 overtime victory on Dec. 21 in Sacramento.