Category: Golden State Warriors

By: Ben Leonard

The Warriors have played stellar basketball all season long, and Saturday was no exception. Stephen Curry had a field day against the Dallas Mavericks’ defense, dropping twenty-nine points in leading Golden State to their fifteenth consecutive victory. He spread the ball around well, adding eight assists and grabbing three rebounds. The Mavericks came into Saturday with a respectable 17-8 record, yet Golden State made them look like they were the woeful 76ers. To add insult to injury for Dallas, the Warriors did this without center Andrew Bogut, who missed Saturday’s contest with knee tendinitis and flu-like symptoms. Dallas is now 0-5 against the top seven teams in the Western Conference.

Golden State quickly jumped out to a commanding 39-18 lead at the end of the first quarter, largely due to the scoring prowess of Curry, who added twelve points on five of nine shooting in the period. The Mavericks appeared sluggish in their perimeter defense in the incipient stages of the game, yielding five three pointers to Curry and Klay Thompson in the first quarter alone. On the other hand, the Warriors locked down the Mavericks’ perimeter offense, allowing Dallas to make just one of four from long range in the period.

After jumping out to such a sizeable lead, the Warriors seemingly took their foot off of the gas in the second quarter. Despite slowing down the pace, Golden State still outscored Dallas 27-26 in the period. The decline was largely due to inevitable regression to their hot three point shooting, as they could not maintain their unsustainable 50% shooting from long distance. In the second quarter, the Warriors transitioned offensively to attack the porous interior of the Mavericks’ defense.

Holding a 66-44 halftime lead, the Warriors appeared primed to coast to an easy victory. The Mavericks gave little more resistance in the third quarter, but did outscored Golden State 24-21. In a strange moment with 4:47 left in the third, Marresse Speight’s shoe fell off while on offense and flew to the left wing. He passed the ball out to Draymound Green at the top of the arc, who then passed it to Curry on the left wing. Curry dribbled over, picked up Speight’s shoe, and attempted to throw it to Speights, but Mavericks’ center Tyson Chandler blocked it, trying to give the Mavericks a four-on-five advantage. Coach Steve Kerr tried to argue the move’s legality, but evidently there is no rule regarding shoes once they fall off. The game went on, and the play may have fired up a quiet crowd of 20, 317 in Dallas, but it didn’t affect the game’s end result.

The fourth quarter was a different story for the Warriors, who allowed Dallas to outscored them 30-18 in the fourth quarter. However, it was too little too late for the Mavericks, despite the best efforts of former Warrior Monta Ellis, who had eight points in the quarter. Ellis finished with twenty-four points against his former squad, but it wasn’t enough to surmount his team’s early deficit. He added five assists and three steals in a losing effort. Golden State will now travel to New Orleans to play the Pelicans on Sunday afternoon.

Featured Image: By Keith Allison from Owings Mills, USA (Stephen Curry) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

AP Photo/Stacy Bengs

By Robert Steward

MINNEAPOLIS–

The Golden State Warriors continued their torrid start tonight by defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves, 102-86. With the victory the Warriors won their franchise-record 13th in a row over an injury-depleted Minnesota squad to improve to a league-best 18-2. The T-Wolves, who came into the game at 4-15 were short-handed, playing without leading scorer Kevin Martin and leading rebounder Nikola Pekovic. Still, the Warriors came out flat and played sloppy, hitting only their first 4 of 15 shots and were only up, 9-6, with 5:43 left in the first quarter before Coach Steve Kerr called a timeout to bark at his team. Minnesota was also as cold as the weather outside in Minneapolis, hitting just 2 of their first 14 shots. After the timeout both teams shot better with Golden State having the edge after one quarter at 25-20.

The sloppy play, however, continued in the second quarter as both teams made numerous turnovers and Golden State led only by two, 36-34 with 5:29 left. Following a timeout, the Warriors ran off 7 straight points and finished the first half with a 48-39 lead, which matched their biggest lead of the half. The Warriors had 10 turnovers in the half, but Minnesota outdid them with 13 of their own. In addition, the Warriors were cold from 3-point range. Klay Thompson was the lone shooter who hit from long-distance, hitting 3 of 6 from downtown, while the rest of the Warriors were 0 for 9 in the first half. Minnesota was 0 for 5 shooting three’s. The Warriors as a team managed to only shoot 38% from the floor in the first half, while the T-Wolves shot only 36%. Golden State did have 11 steals in the half.

In the third quarter the Warriors “brought the energy,” as Kerr put it, and forced the tempo more. The Warriors, who are first in the NBA in fast-break points, settled down and committed fewer turnovers, while increasing their lead to 11. But the Timberwolves hung around and after Thaddeus Young hit the team’s first 3-pointer and followed it with a 14-foot jumper, they were only down 62-56, with 5:07 left in the quarter. The Warriors then ran off 7 in a row of their own, finishing the run with Stephen Curry’s first trey of the night to go up, 69-56, with 4:03 left in the 3rd, forcing Minnesota coach Flip Saunders to burn another timeout. The Warriors continued to add to their lead, eventually scoring 13 straight points to open up a 75-56 lead until Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins stopped the bleeding with two free throws. Golden State led, 79-63, after 3.

The Warriors continued to find their focus in the 4th, extending their lead to its largest of the game by 22 points. While Coach Kerr wasn’t pleased with the lack of effort in the early going and felt the Warriors were too lazy in switching on defense, which allowed Minnesota to get some wide open lanes to the basket in the first half, he praised his team for turning up the defensive effort in the second half. He was also pleased with the effort turned in by backup Center Festus Ezeli, who came off the bench after starting Center Andrew Bogut left after only 3 minutes into the game with what the Warriors called “right knee irritation.” Ezeli grabbed 8 rebounds and scored 7 points in 21 minutes.

Golden State was led by both Curry and Thompson, who each scored 21. Shaun Livingston came off the bench and had a nice overall game, scoring 12 points to go with 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals. Marreese Speights also chipped in with 12 off the bench, while Draymond Green also had 12 points, while leading the team with 10 rebounds. The Warriors ended up shooting 46% for the game, while holding Minnesota to 36%. No opponent of the Warriors has managed to shoot better than 50% from the floor this season. The T-Wolves were lead by the number one overall pick in this year’s NBA draft, Wiggins, who finished with 21 points. Shabazz Muhammad had 14 off the bench and Young scored 13.

The Warriors will look to extend their winning streak to 14 when they host the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night at Oracle Arena.

AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh

By Matthew T.F. Harrington

The Golden State Warriors rode Draymond Green’s career night in Chicago to a Franchise record 12 straight wins, topping the Bulls 112-102 Saturday night. Green  paced with Warriors, owners of the best record in the NBA at 17-2, scoring a game-high 31 points in his minutes of work.

Green went 7 of 13 from beyond the three-point line, hitting 11 of 20 total field goals.  Klay Thompson picked up 24 points, while fellow Splash Brother Stephen Curry collected 19 despite a poor shooting night. Curry went 5 of 14 from the field.

For the Bulls , just 2.5 games back of th(12-8) Eastern Conference Leaders Toronto, Jimmy Butler continued his breakout campaign. He led the Bulls with 24 points on 8 baskets and converted 5 of 7 free throws. Bulls big man Pau Gasol had a game-high 20 rebounds and pitched in 22 points for the double-double. Andrew Bogut topped the Warriors with 12 rebounds.

The Warriors built up a cushy 61-49 lead by the half, but were outscored 31-18 in the third quarter. Trailing by one at 80-79 heading into the fourth, the Warriors finished out the game outscoring their hosts 33-22 for the win.

The Bulls were plagued by the Warriors defensive unit, with Golden State forcing 22 turnovers. The Dubs went 40 of 89 as a team in shooting, good for 44.9 percent. The visitors were red-hot from beyond the arc, going 12 for 30 from downtown.

The next stop in the Warriors two-city winter wonderland tour is Minnesota, where the Warriors seek lucky win number 13 in a row Monday night. The Timberwolves currently occupy the Western Conference cellar, owning only four wins this season.

By: Ben Leonard

The Golden State Warriors came into Tuesday night cruising, winning their last nine games, including a win over the Thunder. They were also heavy favorites against the lowly Orlando Magic, who had just snapped their nineteen game losing streak against Western Conference teams on the road Sunday against the Phoenix Suns. Despite all this momentum swinging in the Warriors’ favor, the Magic almost handed Golden State just their third loss of the season. The Warriors struggled to make shots after a great second quarter, in which they made 79% of their shots. They needed a clutch, eventual game-winning three pointer from Stephen Curry to take a 98-97 victory over the Magic and move to 15-2. The Warriors are now just one win short of tying a franchise record of eleven straight victories.

It was not easy for Golden State in the early going, fueled mostly by hot shooting from Magic guard Victor Oladipo. He scored nine in the first quarter, leading Orlando to an early 15-8 lead with 6:16 to go in the first. After a timeout, the Warriors recuperated and gathered some momentum, cutting Orlando’s lead to 25-24. In a halftime interview on CSN Bay Area, Warriors’ assistant coach Alvin Gentry stressed the importance of doing “a better job on defense in keeping in front of [Oladipo].” Oladipo finished with twenty-seven points and four assists, but his individual performance was not enough to beat the Warriors.

The Warriors and small forward Draymound Green survived an early scare. Green sprained his thumb falling into photographer, and went to the locker room for treatment. He later returned to game, and made a good catch on half court pass and finished with a layup, drawing little reason for concern. Golden State pulled away in the second quarter, making an unsustainable seventy-nine percent of their shots to carry them to a 56-46 halftime lead. As as team, the Warriors had nineteen assists, and generally shared the ball well. They dominated the boards in the first half, grabbing twenty-seven rebounds to Orlando’s fourteen, including seven of the offensive variety. The Warriors failed to take advantage of poor three pointing shooting by the Magic (2-11 3-pt) in the first half, turning the ball over ten times. They allowed the Magic to score thirteen points off of these miscues.

The third quarter was similarly awful for the Warriors, who were outscored 29-17 in the period behind poor three point shooting. Golden State missed all of its five attempts from long-range, missing several open shots in the process. The Magic went on an 11-0 run from 9:19 until 6:20 left in the third, eventually turning a big 65-53 lead into a 71-69 deficit with 1:57 left in the third. Golden State went six for twenty-one from the field in the period, and likely felt relieved to finish the third down just 75-73.

Andre Iguodala set the tone early in the fourth, opening the half with a quick bucket to tie the game. Center Andrew Bogut blocked two shots on the ensuing possession, yet the Magic still hit a three to make it 77-75. The Warriors found themselves down 84-77 with around 7:40 left to play in the second half, and needed a catalyst. Despite a quiet night in the early going, Klay Thompson’s three pointer with 5:35 to go provided just that, cutting Orlando’s lead to 86-83 and getting the 19,596 in attendance at Oracle Arena back in the game. The three pointer started a furious rally for the Warriors, who went on an 11-2 run to tie the game at ninety-five apiece. Thompson ended up scoring twenty points on the night, despite a slow start, and gave the Warriors the boost that they had needed to get back in the game. Another star for Golden State was quiet in the first half: Stephen Curry. He made just two of five shots in the first half, scoring five points. He certainly made his presence known late in the game, hitting a game-winning three from the right wing with just 2.2 seconds to play. He shook off a poor shooting night, scoring eight points in the fourth quarter, including the decisive shot that gave the Warriors a 98-97 lead. In total, Curry scored twenty-two points to go along with five assists. After a timeout, the Magic had one last chance, but Draymound Green batted the inbounds pass away to end the game.

It was an uncharacteristically close game for the Warriors, who had not had a game decided by less than four points coming into Tuesday night. Last season, they had a whopping twenty-six of those games, a testament to the dominance that these Warriors have been accustomed to this season. Tuesday’s win marked their seventh this season against Eastern Conference foes in as many tries. Golden State will play the New Orleans Pelicans in their next game, this Thursday night at Oracle Arena.

Stats and info courtesy of ESPN

Featured Image: By Keith Allison (Flickr: Victor Oladipo) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons