by David Zizmor

TORONTO–The Golden State Warriors are in Toronto Sunday afternoon to battle the Raptors for a 1:00 PM PST tip off and the Raptors are a first place club who are holding a four game lead in the Atlantic. The Warriors Stephen Curry who played one of his worst games of the season agianst the Bulls in Chicago last Wednesday in the Warriors 103-83 loss scored only five points going 2-10 as the Bulls contained him on defense.

Then it was onto New York at Maidison Square Garden on Friday night, where Curry was no longer playing doormat as he exploded with 27 points leading the Warriors to a 126-103 win over the Knicks. The Knicks are a mediocre team at best and if they were in the Western Conference they wouldn’t be a playoff team.

In the Eastern Conference their a playoff team but that’s because the Eastern Conference is so much worse than the Western. The Knicks do have Carmelo Anthony who lead the team with 23 on Wednesday who is still one of the best players in the NBA. That definitely gives them a slight edge over the other teams in the east. As far as every single player from number one to number 15 on the Knicks they can’t compete.

The Knicks can’t compete with the top teams in the east and they can’t compete with most of the teams in the west. Their an also ran, their going to tread water so other than that their not very good. There a team that the Warriors should beat and you can’t say that about most eastern conference teams.

Curry going into New York had a triple double which is not as notable or flashy as the 54 points he dropped on the Knicks last year but boy Curry certainly rises to the occasion during a big game when he’s in a notable environment like New York. MSG is one of those places even when the Knicks aren’t very good it still is a great place to play there’s just a certain atmosphere you get there that you don’t get in too many arenas.

Curry dropped 54 points last season at MSG, this time he dropped a triple double and just kind of controlled this game, remember he hit a triple double in essentially three quarters of basketball because he barley played in the fourth, had he been given another ten minutes to play his numbers would have been more impressive.

The Warriors face the Raptors with Toronto’s high scorers DeMar DeRozan (22.7), Rudy Gay (19.4), and Ken Lowry (16.9) the Raptors have got some good offense winning seven of their last ten games. The Raptors have had recent success against Cleveland twice, Orlando, Washington and Atlanta. The Warriors coming into Sunday have won seven of their last eight games.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk radio