Category: Golden State Warriors

Warriors Clinch Home Court in Win Over Mavs

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By: Ben Leonard

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It’s just been one of those seasons.

Even on a night when Stephen Curry was virtually absent, the Warriors dispatched the Dallas Mavericks 123-100. Curry had lead the Warriors all season long, leaving them just one win short of guaranteeing the NBA’s best record for the first time in 40 years. The star point guard scored just 11 points, but the Warriors did just fine without him.

His teammates picked him up, taking pages out of his book with hot shooting beyond the arc. Klay Thompson had 21 points on 5-10 shooting from long range, and guard Andre Igoudala chipped in 18 of his own, going 4-9 on three-point attempts. The team victory, with seven scoring in double figures, gave head coach Steve Kerr the record for wins by a rookie coach.

Even without Curry’s stabilizing presence, the squad got out to an eleven point halftime lead. It was a hard fought game, with lots of physical play from both sides. The Mavericks had a season-high 54 free throw attempts because the Warriors were called for 37 team fouls. One of them was a technical on assistant Jarron Collins, for his actions after Marresse Speights made a buzzer-beating half-court shot right before halftime. Speights fouled out For this reason, Monta Ellis, a former Warrior, took a free throw to start the second period but could not convert. In another physical moment, Dallas point guard Rajon Rondo had to leave the game after running into Harrison Barnes while driving in the lane. Even Shaun Livingston got in on the action, getting called for a flagrant call after giving a low blow to Dirk Nowitzki.

No matter the circumstances, the Warriors will take the win, especially to take home court, although they’d prefer a less dirty win. They’ll have six more tune-up games before the playoffs start, the first of which being Sunday at San Antonio.

 

 

Barnes Buzzer Beater Gives Warriors 62nd Win

Published on by Matthew HarringtonLeave a comment

By Matthew T.F. Harrington

If Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr had to draw up one play to win a game, chances are he’d funnel the ball to potential Most Valuable Player Stephen Curry. Unfortunately for Kerr, Thursday night against at the Phoenix Suns the ball didn’t find Curry when the Dubs needed it to most. Instead, it came to an unlikely hero; Harrison Barnes.

With 4 seconds remaining and the Warriors trailing 106-105, Draymond Green’s inbound pass found Barnes cutting to the basket. After a few seconds, Barnes put up the game-winning lay-up with .4 ticks of the clock left. It was later ruled that time had expired, handing Golden State (62-13) their 62nd win (adding to the franchise record set this season) with a final score of 107-105.

The magic moment was almost for not in a frantic finish. In a mad scramble that started around the :30 mark of the fourth, the Warriors set up camp in the offensive zone. After three offensive rebounds and a steal, Klay Thompson fed Curry for a three to put Golden State ahead 105-104 with just 6 seconds left in regulation. The Suns answered back after an unguarded Eric Bledsoe drove to the hoop for the easy two points to hand Phoenix the one-point lead with just under 5 seconds left, setting up Barnes big moment.

Over 23 minutes, Barnes only collected four total points. Of course, Curry led the way offensively for the Warriors. The All-Star guard went 10-for-22 from the field, collecting a game-high 28 points to go with 8 boards and 5 assists. Thompson pitched in 16 points of his own. Bledsoe topped the Suns (38-38) with 18 points on 6 of 17 from the field.

Both teams shot around 46 percent on the night, with the Warriors winning the rebound battle 50-47. The Suns committed only 11 turnovers to Golden State’s 13 in an evenly-played contest.

The Warriors outscored Phoenix 55-44 in the first half, but were outpaced 62-52 over the second half to set up the tense final moments.

Next on the schedule for the Warriors is a tougher opponent than the .500 Suns. The Western Conference leaders will match-up with the 7th seed out West, the Dallas Mavericks. The two teams link up in a Saturday night showdown in the Lonestar State.

The Warriors knock off the Clippers

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March 31st Los Angeles

by Jerry Feitelberg

What a great game. It was fast and furious and the outcome was in doubt until the final twelve seconds of the game but the Warriors came back from a seventeen point deficit in the second period to defeat the Los Angeles Clippers 110-106

It was the Warriors tenth straight win and they won the last four games on the road. The Clippers were also playing great basketball as they came into the game having won seven in a row but the win streak ended Tuesday night. It did not start off well for the Warriors as they played a very poor first period. The Clippers opened the game with a 7-0 run and the Warriors were not playing very well on defense. Draymond Green did not play again tonight as he has a shin injury and David Lee started in his place.  The Warriors offense was not very good as they shot just 31% from the floor and they watched the Clippers All-Star, Blake Griffin, have a very strong first period as he went 6 for 7 from the floor for 12 points as the Clippers had the lead at 30-18 at the end of the first period.

For the first six minutes of the second period, it was more of the same. The Clippers led by Griffin and Chris Paul built the lead to 17. The Dubs woke up and started to chip away at the lead.  They closed the gap to nine with 4:20 left in the half and they did outscore the Clippers by five in the period, but they still trailed by seven at the end of the half 53-47.

The Warriors came to life in the third period. As they have done so many times this season. they got things going and they were able to actually take the lead for the first time 72-71 with about 5 minutes left in the period. The lead lasted about 20 seconds as the Clippers pushed back and had a six point lead 88-82 at the end of three periods of play. Klay Thompson got hot for the Warriors and at one stretch, Klay and Steph Curry accounted for 19 straight points. The Warriors scored 36 points in the period, but the Clippers kept them at bay.

In the fourth and final period of play, the Warriors went on a 9-0 run to put them ahead 91-88. The Clippers fought back and took a 94-91 lead, but Klay drained a 3-point shot to tie the game at 94. The game was tied again at 98 with 4:03 lefty in the game.  The Warriors went ahead 103-100 as Andre Iguodala was fouled attempting a 3-point shot and he made all three free throws to give the Dubs the lead for good. The score was 106-102 with 22 seconds left and the Clippers had the ball in the forecourt following a timeout. On the attempt to get the ball into play, the ball was mishandled by Chris Paul and the Clips were called for a backcourt violation and the ball went to the Dubs and that was the game. Final score 110-106.

Notes- The Warriors won their 10th straight game and are now 61-13 for the season. The Clippers are now 49-26.

Steph Curry led the Dubs in scoring wit 27points and he had 9 assists. Klay Thompson had a great second half and ended the evening with 25 points and 8 rebounds.  Andrew Bogut, who fouled out with 1:26 left in the game, was his usual defensive force as he had 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 6 points. David Kee, starting just his second game of the year, pitched in with 17 and the Warrior bench led by Mo Speights, Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa added 34. The Clippers were led by Blake Griffin’s 40 points. Chris paul knocked down 27 and J.J. Redick had 14. The Clipper bench did not provide any offense and Clipper coach, Doc Rivers, had his starters on the floor for most of the game.

Next up for the Warriors will be the Phoenix Suns Thursday night at the Oracle Arena. Game time will be at 7:30pm and the Warriors will then go on another four-game road trip.

Warriors Win 60th Game, Clinch West

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By: Eric He

Not since Gerald Ford was President have the Golden State Warriors been this good.

With a 108-95 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night, the Warriors won their franchise-record 60th game of the season and clinched the top seed in the West, ensuring them home-court advantage through the Western Conference Finals in the playoffs.

The last time the Warriors won more than 59 games and were the top seed in the conference was the 1975-1976 season.

After a rather sluggish first quarter, the Warriors pulled away in the second, dominated in the third, and coasted in the fourth for a comfortable win.

Stephen Curry’s 25 points led the way, and he maintained his torrid shooting from beyond-the-arc, hitting 6-of-9 three-point attempts. Klay Thompson, who finished with 21, scored 17 points in the third quarter that saw the Warriors outscore the Bucks 34-25 and extend a 10-point lead to 19.

Thompson made jumper after jumper, and scored nine consecutive points at one juncture to propel the Warriors’ advantage.

Back-to-back shots by Curry midway through the fourth put the Warriors up 99-78 and sealed the game.

Notes

The Warriors rested Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green on the back-end of a back-to-back. David Lee started in Green’s place … James Michael McAdoo contributed 12 points off the bench. … The Warriors held the Bucks to 37.9 percent shooting and 13.3 percent (2-of-15) from three-point range. … With their 26th road win of the season, the Warriors set yet another franchise record. … Next up for Golden State will be the Clippers on the road on Tuesday night.

Golden State Warriors podcast with David Zizmor: Warriors close to clinching Western Conference top seeding

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by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The Warriors have just been playing amazing basketball lately and this might be the best that they’ve looked all season. That’s including that long win streak earlier in the first half of the season. This team is really clicking on all cylinders, they have the points and their just starting to pull away in the NBA Western Conference.

The W’s are ten games up on Memphis and their four games up on the Atlanta Hawks for the overall best record and they just beat Atlanta last week by just a dominating score 114-95. Then this last week the beat up on Portland 122-108, they then beat up on Memphis 107-84, they beat up on Washington 107-76, these are three playoff teams they beat up on.

They won those games and there was not a close match in any of those games the factor in all three of those games the Warriors kept it close through the first half and they just exploded in the third quarter and the fourth quarter was no contest to rest the starters for the most part. You watch these third quarters whatever adjustments they make and the feel they’ve got for the first half all comes to a head in the third quarter.

The Warriors just run away with it, especially in this game the other night against Memphis, their up by five in the half it was a good game. Mike Conley from Grizzlies had a very strong first half with 16 points and in the second half the Warriors made an adjustment to counter for him. Conley scored zero points in that second half.

Meanwhile Stephen Curry scored 17 points in just the third quarter alone and the Warriors just bombed the Grizzlies out of the building at Fed Ex Forum in Memphis this was a road game for Golden State. So to go on the road and beat Memphis by 20 and the Warriors hadn’t beat Memphis yet this season and they were the only team the Warriors haven’t beaten in the entire NBA.

When the Warriors faced the Grizzlies much earlier in the season it was the December 16th they lost 105-98, they didn’t dominate the game because there were just a few games where the Warriors have been blown out but it wasn’t a very close game based on how the Warriors have played this season. The Warriors are in Milwaukee on Saturday night and could clinch for the number one seed in the Western Conference.

David Zizmor does Warriors commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below

Warriors Match Single-Season Franchise Wins Mark

Published on by Matthew HarringtonLeave a comment

By Matthew T.F. Harrington

Stephen Curry continued his barnstorming campaign to win the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award Friday night, dropping 38 points on the Memphis Grizzlies to lead the Golden State Warriors to the 107-84 victory. The Western Conference leaders now have eighth-straight wins and have matched the franchise record for wins in a single season.

Curry went 12-for-22 from the field in 34 minutes of play, nailing 8 treys out of 12 attempted to push the Warriors passed the number two team in the conference handedly. The All-star guard also dished out 10 assists.

Klay Thomspon pitched in 28 points while Andrew Bogut matched Memphis’ Jeff Green with a game-high 8 rebounds. Green also topped the Grizzlies (50-21) with 16 points coming off the bench.

The Warriors (59-13) forced 19 Memphis turnovers while out-boarding one of the Association’s physical elite 43-40. Memphis did outshoot Golden State on its home court, shooting 44.7 percent to the Warriors’ 43.3.

The Warriors held a 7-point lead after the opening 12 minutes, putting up 31 points to Memphis’ 24. The Grizzlies cut into the Dubs lead with a 25-23 second quarter but a dominant third frame put Golden State up big. The Warriors scored 31 while limiting Memphis to 16 for an 85-65. The Dubs closed the game out with a 22-19 fourth for the 107-84 final score.

After the contest, the Warriors hopped on a flight for Milwaukee. They take on the Bucks in the second game of a back-to-back Saturday night, looking for win number nine in a row against a Bucks team hovering around the .500 mark.

The Warriors stifle the Washington Wizards

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by Jerry Feitelberg

Oakland, Ca March 23rd, 2015

The Golden State won for the 57th time this season beating the visiting Washington Wizards 107-76. The Warriors shut down the Wizards totally in the third period as the Wizards were held to just eight points and they made just one field goal and that came after nearly eleven minutes of play. The Dubs outscored them 29-8 to put the game out of reach and their record improved to 57-13 for the season while the Wizard fell to 40-31.

Steph Curry led the Dubs with 24 points, six assists, and five rebounds. The Dubs are now an amazing 34-2 at the Roaracle Arena. Andrew Bogut had twelve rebounds and Draymond Green added thirteen points and six boards. Klay Thompson saw action in Monday night’s win as he had eight points and three rebounds in eighteen minutes of action. Thompson missed the last three games with a sprained ankle,

The Wizards’ Bradley Beal scored twelve and John Wall added eleven as Washington lost its third straight game.

After the game Dubs’ coach, Steve Kerr said, " I think the last few games have been a real progression for us in terms of just being very methodical and Professional."

The Warriors honored the 1974-75 NBA championship team throughout the game. Many players, including Hall of Famer, Rick Barry, were on hand to see this year’s team continue to excel as they seek to go all the way. Barry spoke to the team after the game, praising the current players and wishing them well.

The Warriors travel to Portland to face the Trail Blazers Tuesday night.

Curry, Warriors silence Jazz

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By Joe Hawkes-Beamon

OAKLAND — Stephen Curry scored 11 of his game-high 24 points in the second quarter and Leandro Barbosa finished with a season-high 19 points helping Golden State pickup its 56th win of the season with a 106-91 win over the Utah Jazz Saturday night after disposing the New Orleans Pelicans at home Friday night.

The Warriors take the season series from Utah, 3-1.

Curry had his jump shot going, finishing with 8-of-18 from the floor (3-of-6 on 3s) to go along with three assists and three steals in 32 minutes of action. The Warriors’ league MVP candidate was struggling with his shot, shooting just 35 percent from the floor in five previous five games.

Barbosa, who has been huge for Golden State this season, played 28 minutes off the bench.

Draymond Green scored 15 points (11-of-13 from the free throw line), while Harrison Barnes chipped in with 12 points, and Andre Iguodala finished with 13 points off the bench for Golden State, who dominated Utah on fast break points, 25-6.

Justin Holiday, who has started the last three games in the place of All-Star shooting guard Klay Thompson, finished with just seven points.

“L.B. has been magnificent this season,” said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. “His defense has been tremendous for us, he’s a worker, a wonderful teammate.”

“We’re a deep team,” said Curry. “It goes to show you what our record (56-13) is. Everyone is playing great and contributing to the team’s success.”

Andrew Bogut was aggressive in the paint tonight scoring eight of Golden State’s game high 46 points in the paints (Utah finished with 36 points in the paint), and played great defense against Jazz promising young center Rudy Gobert. Gobert finished with just five points and nine rebounds in 34 minutes.

“Bogut played a great game tonight,” Kerr said of Bogut, who finished with eight of Golden State’s 37 rebounds. “He was a rock in the paint for us, and that is what I’m looking from him every night.”

Derrick Favors finished with 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Trey Burke scored 20 points (5-of-11 on 3s) for the Jazz, who drop to 31-35 on the season.

Before Golden State dropped 106 points tonight, Utah didn’t allow 100 points in 12 consecutive games. Opponents were averaging just 86 points per game during that span.

Utah was 12-3 since the All-Star break, which was tops in the league.

Golden State continues to pile up wins at Oracle, improving to an NBA-best 33-2 in front of arguably the best homecourt advantage in all of basketball and are beating teams by an average of 15 points per game at home.

When holding teams to under 100 points, Golden State are a staggering 37-0.

With just three more wins, Golden State can tie the 1975-76 Warriors team for the most wins in franchise history with 59. The Warriors’ magic number to clinch the Pacific Division is down to two games.

The Warriors can finish their six-game homestand Monday 6-0 (and extend its current five-game winning streak) with a win over the visiting Washington Wizards.

Golden State will celebrate the 40th anniversary of the organization’s last championship that night, which was won against Wizards (formally the Bullets).

 

Golden State Warriors podcast with David Zizmor: What’s in the water? Warriors can’t be contained win streak hits eight

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by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–This is just a special team and Golden State Warriors fans have to step back and savor these victories and they have. If you listen to talk radio in the Bay Area no matter what the station folks are universally in awe of this squad. We watched them last year and yeah they were good. There is no doubt they were a good team they made the playoffs you can’t deny that.

This season we didn’t expect this, the Warriors are sitting at the end of March and there are 14 games left and the Warriors right now are unquestionably the best team in the NBA. You look at all the power rankings published by all these websites that are published on a weekly basis the Warriors are at the top of it all the way around.

There is no question about it, especially after they just destroyed the Atlanta Hawks last Wednesday by 20 points there is no other team in the NBA that has 50 wins right now. This is a team where you can look at them and say they have a shot at the NBA Championship. For 39 years they haven’t been able to say that since they were the defending champs in 1974-75.

Also in 1976 was the last time you could think of the Warriors as a contender, ever since that 1976 season after their 75 title you couldn’t say that. It’s been a long time and these Warriors fans have been so long suffering and so great in spite of all the lousy basketball they’ve seen over the years you sit back in amazement and say “hey this is special.”

You have to soak it all in at the same time it comes with expectations, the W’s go into the playoffs with the best record in the NBA with home court advantage secured throughout the playoffs and the finals if it comes down to that. Then there’s a little bit of pressure on you if you actually come through. If you get that number one record people kind of have that expectation of you.

Warriors fans to a certain extent are saying “hey the western conference is difficult we would understand if something happens in the post season and anything is possible given the state of the west” the conference is just tough from top to bottom but you can’t just look into the western conference and say it’s good enough. When you have that number one record like the Warriors do they have the inside track to get into the finals.

David Zizmor does commentary each week on the Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

Warriors Spoil Pelicans Playoff Push with 112-96 Triumph

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By Matthew T.F. Harrington

Despite a poor shooting night from Stephen Curry, the Golden State handedly topped an Anthony Davis-less New Orleans Pelicans squad 112-96. Curry went just 4 of 17 from the field, finishing the night with just 16 points, but Harrison Barnes continued his run of torrid play to beat the playoff-hopeful Pelicans in front of the Oracle Arena crowd.

Barnes, getting the starting nod from coach Steve Kerr, finished the night with 9 made shots in 13 attempts for 22 points. He now has back-to-back 20-point games for the first time since his breakout 2013 playoff campaign .

The Pelicans saw 6 different players post double-digit scoring totals Friday headlined by Norris Cole’s 16 off the bench. Quincy Poindexter and Alexis Ajinca added 15.

Golden State hit half their shots, sinking 44 of 88 Friday while New Orleans to a 42.3 shooting percentage knocking down 33 of the 77 would-be baskets.

The Warriors built a slim 30-26 lead after the first quarter, but outscored the Pelicans 56-42 over the middle two frames for the 86-68 edge heading into the final 12 minutes. New Orleans (37-32), two games back of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference, outscored the Warriors 28-26 in the fourth. By then it was too late, as Golden State rolled to its 55th victory.

The Warriors (55-13) now sit just four games shy of matching a franchise record in wins. A win Saturday over the visiting Utah Jazz Saturday night could move them one step closer.