If they win in Denver. they’ll become the second team in National Basketball Association history to win their first 15 games of the season. With Cavs, he reached the finals and everything was magical until the time Stephen Curry led Golden State Warriors to the title. From an effective field goal percentage perspective, this will be a matchup of two heavyweights.Barnes hit three of his six three-point attempts on a 20-point night. Denver rookie PG Emmanuel Mudiay scored a season-high 26 points on Friday.3.
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Interim coach Luke Walton reminded his players of that loss before the game. Chicago is a good team. Jimmy Butler will get the headline for the huge alley-oop slam, but watch Noah up top on this particular set and the screen he sets on Draymond Green to spring Butler open. That was tough on the back end of a back-to-back and coming off an emotional high. “And the team that beat us looks more hungry than we are”, – Walton deserves a few credit for not letting the fire wane. Starting in place of the injured Derrick Rose (ankle), Kirk Hinrich posted 17 points on tidy 6-of-11 shooting. Mirotic added 10 rebounds and five assists.
This season, Golden State is showing that their last year’s win was not by accident. Chicago jumped out to a 11-point lead midway through the opening quarter. Golden State assisted by committing four turnovers. Iguodala and Barnes both made threes and Curry connected on a layup to give Golden State a 50-47 lead at the half.
It would be a seesaw battle over the next 30 minutes.
Westbrook continues to play as the team’s alpha male with 28.1 points and an impressive 10.4 assists per game. There were 13 lead changes and 15 ties. During last year’s meetings between the guards, Curry dominated Paul and delivered one behind-the-back move that left his rival tied up in knots – an image that lives on in highlight reels.
After the epic match at Los Angeles against the Clippers, nothing seems anymore capable of stopping Warriors in their way to their 2nd consecutive title, unless LeBron takes it too personally and will want revenge with Cleveland.
After two sloppy passes at half court committed by Curry in the final quarter, there was plenty to nitpick in his 40-point performance. His layup later put the Wolves within five points, but they couldn’t come up with a stop defensively when they needed it the most. Thompson made the 3-pointer possible with his hustle for an offensive rebound. “If we have a chance to try to throw a knockout punch, that’s going to be the lineup we try to do it with”. They had a “very brief discussion” about Hoiberg coaching Golden State before Steve Kerr got the job, Hoiberg said. But don’t expect to see the lineup earlier. It starts with Green, the rare player capable of defending much bigger players on the block and leading a fast break off the subsequent rebound. “We’re trying to get where they are”.
IN was on a three-game winning streak before losing a close game against the Bulls. Yes – 15 wins to start a season is not as important as winning a second title in a row, but you can tell the Warriors know the importance, the rarity, and the opportunity they have to put their name into history.
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Golden State equaled the 1957-1958 Celtics as the only defending champions to win their initial 14 games.
