Warriors fall to Kings with Durant out, Casspi hurt

Los Angeles: Defending champion Golden State saw Kevin Durant sidelined for two weeks, Israeli forward Omri Casspi hurt and their bid to overtake Houston for the NBA's best record falter Friday with a 98-93 loss to Sacramento.

Buddy Hield came off the Sacramento bench to score 22 points to lead the Kings against a struggling Warriors squad without Durant and star guards Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.

Before the game, Durant was put onto the injured list with a rib cartilage fracture and set for re-evaluation in two weeks.

The reigning NBA Most Valuable Player ranks sixth among all NBA scorers this season with 26.6 points a game. Durant also averages 6.8 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 1.9 blocked shots a game.

Golden State was also without Curry, out with a sore right ankle, and Thompson, sidelined by a broken right thumb. Both will be evaluated next week.

Joining the injury list was reserve Casspi, who sprained his right ankle landing on a rival's foot in the second quarter after playing only six minutes.

Golden State's Quinn Cook scored a career-best 25 points in 40 minutes on the court and Draymond Green added 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.

But the Kings (23-47) closed the game on an 11-3 run to capture their first back-to-back wins since late January.

That dropped Golden State to 52-17 and 2 1/2 games behind Western Conference leader Houston for the best record in the NBA.