Ricky Dimon
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The Sacramento Kings committed 29 turnovers on Sunday.
And won.
By 21 points.
Facing the worst team in the NBA (the Golden State Warriors are now 5-23), Sacramento was able to overcome—with room to spare—its mishaps en route to a 100-79 victory. Kings forward Richaun Holmes was responsible for six turnovers in 26 minutes and Bogdan Bogdanovic came off the bench to commit six in 29 minutes. Eight different guys on the roster turned it over multiple times.
“Probably in high school, but I don’t remember,” Sacramento forward Marvin Bagley answered when asked if he had ever seen a team turn the ball over so many times and still win by more than 20. “We can’t do that; we can’t have that many turnovers and expect to win multiple games.”
They can’t…unless they play against Golden State every game.
Embarrassing loss
Needless to say, the Kings got a ton of help. The Warriors coughed the ball up 21 times and shot a dreadful 39.0 percent from the floor, including a 6-for-25 effort from three-point range. They also watched the visitors outrebound them 38 to 26.
“We made a million mistakes ourselves,” head coach Steve Kerr admitted. “I’ve never seen a box score like this where we forced 29 turnovers and lost by 21 points. It’s almost impossible to do that. It shows you how poorly we played. Our decision making was awful; one turnover after another, and then defensively we went under screens on great shooters. All kinds of mistakes; very little communication. It was an embarrassing loss tonight.”
“I ain’t never seen that s— before,” forward Draymond Green said of losing by so much despite being gifted 29 turnovers. “We sucked—in every way, shape and form.”
If it was not already certain, Sunday’s performance pretty much confirms that the Warriors are the worst team in the association; yes, even worse than New York, Cleveland, and others.
Historically bad
How bad was this game? Well, it marked the first time since Feb. 6, 2004 that a team forced at least 29 turnovers and still lost. Only seven times in the history of the league has anyone forced at least 29 turnovers and lost by more than 21 points. The most recent? None other than the Warriors, who coaxed 29 TOs out of Utah on Jan. 23, 2001 only to get blown out 100-78. They eventually compiled a 17-65 record during that campaign for the second-worst winning percentage in franchise history. It’s safe to say their 2019-20 record will be even worse.
As for the Kings, they will try to pick up the pieces against another bad team in the form of the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday. Check out our free NBA predictions for that contest; and here is one: it won’t be as awful as Kings vs. Warriors!
