They have already broken the 1957-58 Boston Celtics’ mark for the best start by a defending champion.
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Up 96-92 with a minute and a half to play, Barnes stroked back-to-back three-pointers, the latter of which gave the Warriors a 102-92 lead and sealed the victory.
The Golden State Warriors ran their record to a ideal 14-0 Friday night following a 106-94 victory over the Chicago Bulls at home in Oracle Arena.
Charlotte led by as many as 26 points before the 76ers outscored the Hornets 29-23 in the third quarter to slice the advantage to 81-70 with 1:06 left in that quarter.
The club’s 18th consecutive regular-season win came at the expense of the Bulls, who were the last team to beat the Warriors at home in the regular season, a 113-111 overtime triumph on January 27. Frustrated by the game’s officiating (one would guess), LeBron James subbed himself out in the third quarter, resulting in a technical foul. Golden State can tie the 1993-94 Houston Rockets for best overall start in history at 15-0 with a win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.
The Golden State Warriors face the Denver Nuggets tomorrow, Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday and Phoenix Suns on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.
Barnes finished with 20 points to back Curry, while Klay Thompson added 15. Golden State’s bench then proceeded to take the lead as they outplayed the Chicago bench in the first half.
Curry’s career average against Denver had been 20.0 entering this season before he shot 12 of 22, including 8 for 16 from 3-point range, for 34 points to go with 10 assists and seven rebounds in 119-104 home win November 6. That set the stage for Barnes’ heroics at the finish.
It was just a matter of whether or not the Los Angeles Clippers, a pretty good team in their own right, could hold on after leading by as many as 23 points in the second quarter.
The Warriors trailed by as many as 11 in the first quarter before rallying into a 50-47 lead at halftime. The timing was so close on the play that Wade had to hang on the rim for a couple moments while Whiteside got out of his landing spot. Nikola Mirotic and Butler scored 13 apiece, Pau Gasol had 12, and the only other scorer for Chicago was Kirk Hinrich with nine. The absence of coach Steve Kerr, away from the sideline while he recovers from back surgery.
“He was there for shootaround, he gave a nice speech to the guys”, Walton said. “But it was great having him”. The Nuggets are still a subpar team and the Warriors will be too much to handle.
Curry, the league’s reigning MVP, has surpassed Paul as the best point guard in the league and he is driving that message home in every match-up between the two All Stars. “If we battle like that, we’re going to win a lot of basketball games this year”.
“Andre has been awesome”, Walton said. “It’s something I’ll do more of, but it’s definitely part of our game plan”.
With the Golden State Warriors visiting the Denver Nuggets on Sunday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN), the obvious statistical storyline resides beyond the arc.
It is still early in the season but many people are wondering based off of how they re playing right now if the Warriors could have a flawless season.
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“If we have a chance to throw a knockout punch, that’s the lineup we try to do it with”, he said. “We had a very brief discussion (about the coaching job), but it really didn’t get anywhere”.
