Golden State came back home for the first of two back-to-back games from the All-Star break to face off against the the Los Angeles Lakers, and they came out strong, with Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins and Draymond Green playing great offense and a stifling defense to defeat the Lakers, 128-110 at Chase Arena.
On the second of back to back home games, it was a family reunion for the Curry family, as the Charlotte Hornets came to Chase Arena. Steph's brother, Seth Curry plays for the Hornets, while dad Dell Curry does the play-by-play for the Hornets. Coach Steve Kerr got a nice post All-Star gift, being rewarded with a two-year 35 million dollar extension of his contract, the largest one in the NBA! As for the game itself, if you had the under, this was your game, as the Warriors beat the Hornets, 97-84, in what was truly a good defensive game, but pretty ugly on offense. At half time, both teams field-goal percentage was under 31%, and Golden State turned the ball over 12 times before the half. But hey, a win is a win, and Golden State improves to 8-1 over their last nine games! This is what they call winning ugly.
The Denver Nuggets then rolled into town, and the Nikia Jokic show was on full display, as he recorded his 18th triple-double (points, rebounds assists), as the Warriors lost to the Nuggets, 119-103. Didn't help that the Warriors only scored 4 points in a span of seven minutes in the 3rd quarter, and Curry was cold in the first half. Klay Thompson coming off the bench, helped to keep the Dubs in the game, as did the Dubs getting to the free throw line over 20 times, but it was not enough to overcome Jokic and the Denver defense. Plus, too many turnovers! The Warriors have now lost seven in a row to the Nuggets. Golden State now embarks on a four game road trip.
First game of this four game road trip, the Dubs came to DC with Wiggins out due to a family matter, but got the benefit of having Chris Paul return back from his hand injury he suffered on January 5th. The game went pretty much the Warriors way, as they defeated the Washington Wizards, 123-110. The game had some interesting takeaways: Curry had zero points in the first half, which has not happened since 2012, but Moses Moody was dropping threes, and Paul showed no signs of rust, scoring nine, with four steals, and the bench, led by Thompson, scored 25 points and was 6-11 on threes, as the Golden State bench thumped the Wizards bench, 53-15! This was the Warriors sixth straight road win, and are 8-2 in the last ten games! Next up is the Knicks at Madison Square Garden in New York City!
The Warriors entered Madison Square Garden feeling good about their play, and Moses Moody is in the lineup again, as Wiggins continues to deal with a family matter. New York Knicks super fan Spike Lee was in the house to see Curry and company face off against the Knicks. The Dubs also are playing against one of their former teammates, Dante DeVincenzo, who is third in the NBA in 3-point shots, which he credits to learning from Curry. The Knicks, known to be very physical, were getting bullied by the Dubs in the 1st half, with Dante taking the brunt, at one point, leaking blood from his nose. Golden State thanks to 45% field goal shooting, went into halftime with a 55-46 lead. The 3rd quarter had the Warriors with a 17 point lead, but the Knicks gathered themselves and slashed that to eight, before the Dubs made a mini push to end the 3rd up by ten, 80-70. The 4th quarter started well, with the Dubs up by 15 ,but then the Knicks went on an 11-0 run, to cut the lead to eight. The last four minutes of the game were a wild back n forth, with both defenses getting stops, and crucial baskets, and the Dubs out-dueled the Knicks, winning 110-99. Some stats: The Bad: After a hot Steph dropping three 3-pointers to open the game, the Dubs 3 point shooting nose-dived, and the free throws were awful, going 8 of 16!
The Good: A very physical defensive game, the Dubs bench with 35 points, Curry dropping 31 points AND adding 11 rebounds! Player of the game though was Kuminga, with 25 points, eight rebounds, two steals, and several blocks, and was just in charge of this game. The Dubs had 56 points in the paint, mostly thanks to Kuminga and Moody and Podz! Golden State now has a seven road game winning streak, and leave the country to play the Raptors in Toronto tomorrow evening. Yep, another back-to-back!
See ya next week for another Warriors weekly round up! Its going to be a tough stretch of teams they will be playing, so gotta keep the defensive tempo up!
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