Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry celebrates after teammate Jason Thompson scores a three point shot against the Toronto Raptors during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Toronto, Saturday, Dec. 5, 2…
Advertisement
Dwyane Wade scored a game high 19 points for the Heat, who improved to 12-6 after winning their last two games. Festus Ezeli had 8 points and 10 rebounds for the Warriors, who also beat the Raptors in a close affair in Golden State about three weeks ago.
Curry’s counterpart, Kyle Lowry also had a big scoring night.
Stephen Curry likes playing in Toronto, and it shows. The victory runs Golden State’s record-setting start to 21-0 and finishes up a season series in which Toronto tested the defending champions as no other team has to open the campaign.
“I have great memories of being here watching my dad play”.
“Every guy in the locker-room, we genuinely isolate each game as this is another 48 minutes to try to get better”.
“I enjoy coming back here and playing, it’s a familiar setting”. Klay Thompson scored 26 points, and Draymond Green had 16 points, nine rebounds and six assists. “We’ve got to get a level of play that we’re going to decide we play at, from the start of the game to the end of the game”, Toronto coach Dwane Casey told reporters. The three-point margin of victory matched the smallest of the season for the Warriors, who won 106-103 at Utah on Monday.
“It’s really good”, Curry said.
“Twenty-one challenges, we’ve been able to separate each one individually and figure out different ways to win”, Curry told USA TODAY Sports.
Guard Lowry led the Raptors with 41 points and seven assists in front of a crowd of 20,100 at the Air Canada Centre. “When he’s doing things like that, it carries us and it just picks up everybody else”. After 21 wins, we’ll believe that result when we see it. The lead was down to 76-73 when Nogueira put in a dunk with 2:52 left in the third quarter.
Guard DeMar DeRozan made one of two free throws to cut the lead to one then Curry made two foul shots before Lowry made a driving layup with 44.2 seconds left, but missed a free throw and the Warriors led by one. This wasn’t the first time we’ve seen the Raptors’ all-star point guard put the team on his back, but he’s never been better than he was Saturday, at least not statistically. But like I said, we’ve got to look at it and understand that is the best team in the league.
The players wore specially designed T-shirts during warmups and on the bench and the Raptors welcomed a number of special guests, including former National Basketball Association stars Isiah Thomas and Bob Lanier along with global soccer star Didier Drogba. Howard scored 22 points on 7 of 9 shooting. “It’s unbelievable, every single night at some point he takes over the game”. The Warriors had to use a timeout, but Curry returned shortly after the hit.
Golden State will play the fourth game of a seven-game road trip Sunday at Brooklyn against the Nets.
Advertisement
In Chicago, Nicolas Batum scored 12 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter to lead Charlotte to the win.
