LUKE WALTON

A person familiar with the decision says the Sacramento Kings have agreed to hire Golden State assistant Mike Brown as their head coach.

With the NBA trade deadline looming, it's decision time for teams around the league.

Klay Thompson hit his first seven shots overall and initial six 3-pointers on the way to 23 points and seven assists, and the Golden State Warriors beat the Sacramento Kings 126-114 for their eighth straight victory.

Keita Bates-Diop scored a career-high 30 points and the San Antonio Spurs routed the slumping Los Angeles Lakers 138-110 in the final event at Staples Center under the 22-year-old arena’s original name.

The Sacramento Kings have fired coach Luke Walton after getting off to a disappointing start in his third season in charge.

Richaun Holmes had 23 points and a career-best 20 rebounds and the Sacramento Kings made a franchise-record 22 3-pointers in a 140-110 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Friday night.

Stephen Curry hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 56.8 seconds remaining to follow up a 30-footer less than a minute earlier, and his 45-point home opener lifted the Golden State Warriors over the Los Angeles Clippers 115-113.

Buddy Hield scored 27 points, Marvin Bagley III had 23 points and nine rebounds and Sacramento beat Dallas 111-99, giving the also-ran Kings a season sweep of the playoff-contending Mavericks.

Stephen Curry scored 37 points and set an NBA record for 3-pointers in a month at 85, leading the Golden State Warriors past the Sacramento Kings 117-113.

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, center, shoots against the Sacramento Kings during the first half of an NBA basketball game in San Francisco, Monday, Jan. 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)SAN FRANCISCO – Stephen Curry followed up his career-high 62 points a night earlier with another 30 points, nine rebounds and eight assists to lead the suddenly clicking Golden State Warriors past the Sacramento Kings 137-106 on Monday. The Kings, coached by former Warriors top assistant and Kerr close friend Luke Walton, dropped their third straight. Warriors: Golden State activated rookie Nico Mannion for his first career game, but fellow two-way player Juan Toscano-Anderson wasn't available. Warriors: Host the Clippers on Wednesday night in the first of two straight home games over three days vs. Los Angeles.

The other six clubs exit World Disney World the same way as tourists who normally pack the place. Now its back to the real world, and the real world in 2020 is an unsettling place. Uncertainty awaits at the end of every season for teams that miss the playoffs. The coronavirus pandemic forces teams to wonder whether they will be safe, and when or where they might be back together again. NBA teams have been shielded for a little while, but the Pelicans, Kings and Wizards, and soon more teams, have lost that now.

The key is can we finish, said Clippers coach Doc Rivers, Austin Rivers father. Whether it be a family problem, a kid problem, a wife problem, anything, there are issues that come in these guys life. Doc Rivers said in a weird way, there can be a positive to seeing players dealing with various issues. I think in a good way in this, the public actually sees that the NBA players actually are human and they do have regular life issues going on, the Clippers coach said. The problem is usually with the life issues you can come back to the team and play the next day.

The NBA comes back Wednesday with a very different look. The leagues marketing motto for the restart of the season at Walt Disney World is Whole New Game, and in many respects, thats very true. Everything else about an NBA game setup is new. Ive just got to take it one game at a time, see what its like during these scrimmages, Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard said. Were looking at this as an opportunity to get better for both teams, Rivers said.

(AP Photo/Nell Redmond, File)LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. The first exhibition games of the NBA restart will go a little more quickly than usual. The NBA is tweaking the rules for those initial matchups, going with 10-minute quarters instead of the usual 12 minutes. Plans call for all 33 exhibitions to be televised by some combination of local TV, national TV, NBA TV or NBA League Pass. The Heat and Jazz will not play in a seeding game and couldnt meet in a game that counts at Disney until the NBA Finals. I think the vast majority of the 22 teams will approach it the same way.___More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. Harrison Barnes of the Sacramento Kings became the latest NBA player to reveal that he has the coronavirus, making the announcement Tuesday and saying he has hopes to join his team for the leagues restart later this summer. Barnes is the only player who has started all 64 of the Kings games this season. Prior to the team leaving last week, I tested positive for Covid-19, Barnes wrote on social media. The league said Monday that 19 players tested positive during in-market testing after July 1, those tests being done before teams began arriving at Disney on July 7. Houstons Russell Westbrook said Monday that he has tested positive and has yet to join the Rockets at Disney.

SACRAMENTO, California (CNN) - The NBA and Sacramento Kings announced Friday that their investigation found insufficient evidence to support sexual assault allegations against Kings head coach Luke Walton. The Kings organization said in a news release that Tennant did not participate in the investigation that included interviews with over 20 people, including Walton. The Kings released a statement saying: "Luke Walton is our head coach and we support him and his team as they continue to prepare for the upcoming season." Walton also released a statement saying he's "100% focused on coaching the Sacramento Kings, and energized to work with this incredible group of players and coaches as we start the preseason. Walton had been a friend and mentor, she said, and Tennant contacted him when he became assistant coach of the Warriors in 2014.