Ezeli said “there is a kind of a feeling of invincibility”, but the coaching staff makes them realize that the feeling has to be earned over and over again.
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Thompson hit two 3-pointers in the final minute of the second quarter to give him 19 points for the half and the Warriors a 59-49 lead at the intermission.
The Warriors are 21-0 to start the season, including 11-0 on the road. He had a career-high 41 points, but Curry was better.
Stephen Curry poured in 44 points, hitting 9 three pointers.
Curry made nine 3-pointers and scored 44 points, leading the undefeated Golden State Warriors to a 112-109 victory over the Raptors on Saturday. He was incredible, yet again.
Jack obviously gathered himself for the first meeting this season between the two – he scored 28 points at Golden State on November 14, when the Nets gave the Warriors fits before losing in overtime.
“I mean yeah, but match [Curry]?”, DeRozan asked. I don’t know if it even exists. Every point guard in the league coming in here is trying to match [Kyle]. (Raptors guard) Kyle Lowry’s doing what he’s doing. “The first one is turnovers for us”.
“To battle through that and stay together and come out with wins, it helps us throughout these games where they take a lead in the fourth quarter and we’ve got to continue to battle back“, said Green, who finished with 16 points, nine rebounds and six assists.
“It seems like he gets 40 points quietly”, Thompson said of Curry.
Fresh off his 40-point effort in Charlotte on Wednesday, Curry connected on his first five shots, including four three-pointers, for 14 points as Golden State jumped to an 11-point lead after 12 minutes. DeRozan – who had a rough shooting night, going 5-for-19 from the field – missed a crucial free throw, as did Lowry.
Curry then made both his free throws and Toronto turned over the ball with 3.3 seconds to play.
“Yeah it’s tough”, said DeRozan, who had 16 points. Curry was in familiar territory and made it seem like a home game. If any team appeared to buckle under the weight of the moment, it was the Raptors tightening up with a lead, knowing how hard it would be to hold it. What the Warriors are showing right now goes beyond confidence. “He’ll move the ball early on usually, he’ll find a sense that he can break the game, just destroy the other team’s soul and that’s what he goes for”. “It just shows how good of a team we can be”.
On the Raptors’ side of things, it remains positively Sisyphus-ian. Since then, they had defeated all four of the playoff teams they’ve faced, so seeing them play up to the level of their competition was nothing new. They’re increasingly dependent on Curry’s heroics – of which there is no shortage – rather than a balanced team attack. “The pressure’s on the Clippers and the Grizzlies and those teams that have been together for five or six years, they’re supposed to be championship rosters”.
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The Golden State Warriors’ latest win had most of the hallmarks of their first 20 victories to start this season. While some may miss Bill Laimbeer body-slamming anyone who dared venture into the lane, it’s much more fun to watch Golden State doing its Harlem Globetrotters impression – weaving all over the court in a magnificent tapestry, showing off a dazzling array of passes and dribbles, doing everything but splashing the refs with a bucket of confetti.
