The Cleveland Cavaliers, the team Golden State beat in last season’s National Basketball Association Finals, ended their two-game skid with a 115-100 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks. LeBron James scored 27 points with nine rebounds and six assists as the Cavaliers gained sole possession of the Eastern Conference lead with their ninth victory of the season. The Clippers were forcing turnovers and disrupting Golden State’s liquid passing. “But now that we’re within striking distance, we can answer that question – it’s real, and we want to get there”. “Obviously, doing something that’s never been done in the history of the league is special, but you never know if this opportunity will come back again”.
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“It wasn’t more important, but it was more fun”, Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton said of the comeback.
The Warriors’ win resulted from a 17-5 finish after point guard Stephen Curry’s third three-pointer broke the game’s 17th tie and put Golden State up for good at 92-89 with 5:26 to go.
Italy’s Marco Belinelli topped Sacramento (4-19) with 23 points while Rajon Rondo added 14, nine rebounds and a season-best 18 assists for his fourth triple-double of the season.
Why not us? You’ve got to take that into the game. Not only is Curry averaging over 34 points per contest, he’s shooting 11.5 three-pointers per game and making 45.3 percent of them.
Golden State’s toughest test of the season came on Thursday night when they visited the Los Angeles Clippers.
And they pulled even on a Kirk Hinrich 3-pointer with just under 6 minutes to play Friday night at Oracle Arena.
These two will be squaring off for the first time this season. The Clippers played the game without starting shooting guard J.J. Redick, who was out while recovering from back spasms, but they had little trouble generating offense.
The Washington Capitols in 1948-49 and Houston Rockets in ’93-94 are the other teams to start 15-0. Let’s add “giving up 41 first-quarter points yet winning going away” to the list, because that’s what happened in Thursday night’s 124-117 win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
It’s hard to imagine Curry continuing this level of play for 82 games, but if he comes close to playing this well for the entire season, it will be hard for Golden State to lose more than 12 times. “And, two, we’re not matching their intensity early on. But by the time the game started, he wasn’t with us anymore”. “That was one of our focal points in training camp this year”.
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For the Bulls to have a chance to win this game, he just might have to perform like that again. Warriors GM Bob Myers was Hoiberg’s agent during the former guard’s playing days. “We had a very brief discussion (about the coaching job), but it really didn’t get anywhere”. “Every team had 2 or 3 superstars on every team … like I said today’s game is just a totally different game”.
