The Jazz have an offense that shares the ball like Golden State, though Gordon Hayward, Rodney Hood and Alec Burks are not quite as consistent with their shooting as the Warriors’ plethora of outside options. But a treacherous sequence looms as Friday’s visit to the Phoenix Suns begins a stretch in which eight of the next nine games are on the road.
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Golden State is now 17-0 following last night’s win over the Phoenix Suns. “The biggest thing with Alec, I keep emphasizing with him is his decisions”. It has become a must see exhibition and I can’t ever recall so many fans flocking to the warm-ups to get a glimpse of Curry. Phoenix has lost three straight games, including Wednesday’s 120-114 home setback to New Orleans. They played great defense at a time that allowed teams to do so. They all featured either Michael Jordan or Wilt Chamberlain.
Still, Hornacek stated his belief the Warriors could be the team that breaks the Chicago Bulls’ 72-win single-season record.
Draymond Green, coming off a triple-double against the Suns, scored 13 points, dished out 12 assists and grabbed 11 boards in 35 minutes for his second straight game of at least 10, 10 and 10.
Leading by 10 points at halftime, the defending champion Warriors opened the third quarter with a 27-8 run that included four 3-pointers by Brandon Rush to build the lead to 29 points. Warriors: G Leandro Barbosa has the flu and watched the game from the locker room….
Guard Isaiah Canaan and forward Robert Covington – both former Rockets – paced the Sixers, with Canaan scoring 23 points while Covington added a career-high 28 points plus seven rebounds, five assists and eight steals. If Hayward is their offensive star, their young Stephen Curry, say, (perhaps before Curry ascended to godly status), Burks is their Klay Thompson, their long, athletic shooting guard.
During the 1985-86 season, Larry Bird led the entire league in made three-pointers. They are good, but the Suns should have been in this game and they were down EIGHTEEN FREAKING POINTS AT HALF. He’s on track to shatter his own record for three-pointers in a season for the third time which permits his team to make more than double the number of shots from beyond the arc that their opponents make. Steph Curry is now averaging 32.6 ppg, despite playing just 34.5 minutes a night. To put that in context: The current record for most assists in a season is 1,164 by John Stockton in 1990-91. This time, with Ronnie Price attempting to pressure him, Curry evoked three gasps on one play from the “away” crowd. Leonard who did most of his damage with 15 points in the first half led the Spurs in scoring for the sixth consecutive contest. He didn’t have to play in the fourth quarter because the game was well in hand after three quarters.
The 3-point record could well have fallen had Curry not sat out the fourth quarter.
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Last night, Curry passed LeBron James for 35 on the all-time list of made three-pointers. “It’s not about how many regular-season games we win”. Elias Sports Bureau research shows that that ties J.R. Smith for the most games with nine or more 3s.
