OAKLAND, CALIF. ? Brad Miller scored a career-high 38 points, played a career-high 50 minutes and leaped for a final steal at the overtime buzzer. He carried the Sacramento Kings on his back — and still had energy to spare.
Miller grabbed 17 rebounds and scored four points in the final 10.8 seconds of overtime, and the Kings overcame the absence of three injured starters to beat the Golden State Warriors 111-107 on Wednesday night.
Mike Bibby had 17 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds as the Kings’ two remaining stars and their reserves hung on through a thrilling fourth quarter and overtime without Chris Webber, Peja Stojakovic and Cuttino Mobley.
Miller, who scored eight points in overtime, cut through the lane with a guard’s grace for the go-ahead layup. The two-time All-Star center went 14-for-22, scored 26 points after halftime and also made two heady plays on loose balls in the final seconds.
“We’ve been battling the last couple of weeks and haven’t had our full team together,” Miller said. “Everybody who’s still here has to step it up. We’ve got a lot of guys that can play on this team that people have never heard of. We take a lot of pride and still expect to win.”
Webber sat out for the third straight game with a sore left knee, while Stojakovic missed his fifth straight game because of back spasms. Mobley also sat out with back spasms, missing his first game since joining the Kings in a trade last month.
Jason Richardson scored 37 points for the Warriors, who lost for the 15th time in 16 games. Richardson was phenomenal in the Warriors’ sixth straight loss — but he missed two free throws with 5.3 seconds left in overtime, and Miller was fouled on the rebound.
“We lost the game because I missed two free throws,” Richardson said. “That’s what I wanted. I just didn’t knock down my free throws. I didn’t do my job. The game was in my hands.”
Miller made his free throws, then jumped to intercept the Warriors’ final pass as time expired. Webber, who wore street clothes and jokingly waved a Kings warmup top at Warriors fans during the final minutes, was among the Kings who congratulated him on the way off the court.
Darius Songaila had 18 points and 11 rebounds, falling just short of career highs in both categories. Maurice Evans added 15 points, also one shy of a career high, and Bibby fell one rebound short of his third career triple-double as each of Sacramento’s five starters played at least 43 minutes.
“It’s tiring, but at the same time, it’s a lot of fun,” Songaila said.
With everyone exhausted in the second night of back-to-back games, Kings coach Rick Adelman relied on his starters and sat in a zone defense for much of the second half, trying to hang on. Thanks to Miller, it worked.
“All we talked about before the game is that it doesn’t matter if you’re short-handed,” Adelman said. “Our guys played really hard, especially when they jumped up on us in that overtime and it looked like it was over with.”
Sacramento’s last trip to Oakland was the lowest point of last season. The Kings lost to the Warriors in the final game of the regular season, blowing the Pacific Division title and the No. 2 seed in the playoffs with their sixth loss in nine games.
The Warriors also were without three regulars. Troy Murphy, the NBA’s fourth-leading rebounder, went on the injured list earlier in the day with a broken left thumb, while Speedy Claxton sat out his seventh game with a thigh bruise, and Cliff Robinson began his five-game suspension for violating the league’s drug policy.
“We just can’t get a play at the end of a game,” coach Mike Montgomery said. “We have to be more disciplined. We have to know how to win. That’s something we’ve got to learn.”
Mike Dunleavy had 18 points, and Derek Fisher added 16 for the Warriors, but they combined for 14-of-35 shooting.
Neither team scored in the final 1:08 of regulation after Matt Barnes’ tying layup. Richardson couldn’t get open for a good shot on the Warriors’ final possession, and Miller missed an awkward leaning jumper at the buzzer.
Notes: Despite thousands of visiting Kings supporters, the Arena was 2,000 fans short of a sellout. … Warriors C Adonal Foyle went crashing into the courtside seats in pursuit of a loose ball, breaking a female fan’s necklace and landing on a kid wearing a Kings hat.
