Golden State Warriors vs. Sacramento Kings: Bogut and Lee out for the final NorCal showdown

Golden State Warriors (46-29) vs. Sacramento Kings (27-48)

7:30 p.m. PST

Oracle Arena - Oakland, CA

TV: CSNBA/HD | Radio: KNBR 680

Buddy blog: Sactown Royalty

The Golden State Warriors beat the Sacramento Kings in the first three times the two faced one another, but none of those games were played without the Dubs' starting frontcourt.

The Warriors say Andrew Bogut and David Lee are out tonight vs. Sacramento. Andre Iguodala is a game-time decision.

— Rusty Simmons (@Rusty_SFChron) April 4, 2014

Nevertheless, there's probably still reason to believe that the Warriors should win this game: the Kings won the offensive rebounding battle the first three times anyway, which one would presume missing a pair of frontcourt players would most strongly affect.

Offensive rebounding rates for the Warriors and Kings in their first three meetings (via Basketball-Reference.com).

Does that mean things could get worse this time? Sure. And Rudy Gay could hurt the Warriors should Andre Iguodala not play: he has been about as efficient as the Warriors have ever been in his 51 games with the Kings (57% TS/26.7% usage).

That puts a lot more pressure on the Splash Brothers to pick up the slack as they did in the first two games of this series.

Three keys

• Splash Brothers going off: In the first two games against the Kings, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson combined to shoot 57% from the field on 73 shots. They shot a shade under 40% in the last game at Sacramento, but got solid performances Jordan Crawford and Draymond Green off the bench. If Green can keep up his better play of late to supplement Curry and Thompson, they will be in good shape.
  
• Turnovers: The turnovers have been a major source of discussion throughout the season, but without their starting posts (and possibly Iguodala) keeping Sacramento from scoring off turnovers in transition will be key.
  
• Steve Blake: This will be Blake's first game against Sacramento as a member of the Warriors this season and it would be nice if he could break out of this little slump he's in lately: he hasn't hit a shot in the last three games (0-for-8). Of course, he's had 8 assists to 2 turnovers, but it would be nice if he could add some scoring punch with key pieces of the team missing.

Of course, the most important thing is that the Warriors can't really afford to drop games right now as they're only two games from being out of the playoffs and could use wins against conference opponents in case of tiebreakers.

Yeah, it's just the Kings, but tonight's game should be a bit of a letdown if three starters are missing.