But on this night, one of the biggest adrenaline rushes of the game came before the game, because Kerr had been gone so long after taking a leave of absence because of complications after back surgery. Point guard Stephen Curry buried 48- and 60-footers, only one of which counted, in a 39-point, triple-double performance, helping the Warriors sweep the two-game season series from the Pacers for the first time since 2000-01. Luke Walton now took the reigns as one of Kerr’s closest assistants, and whether sticking with an Arizona Wildcat to lead the team was the deciding factor, Walton got the nod as interim head coach.
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Although the Pacers lost to Golden State – as many teams do – it wasn’t all doom and gloom.
Hayward helped the Jazz rebound from a pair of tough overtime losses in Charlotte and NY by making 8 of 12 shots and adding nine assists in 31 minutes.
In a typically wry moment between Kerr and Walton, Kerr said he told Walton to draw up the first play of the fourth quarter while Kerr was doing his ESPN interview during the timeout.
The Warriors are 20-0 at home this season and have won 38 in a row at Oracle Arena dating back nearly exactly a year.
Draymond Green finished with 22 points with 12 rebounds while Klay Thompson netted 18 for the defending league champion Warriors (40-4), who never trailed en route to their 40 consecutive home win.
“To be where I was, I can’t ask for anything more”, said Green, who despite the Warriors’ social media campaign fell behind San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard and Dallas’ Zaza Pachulia in the final vote. The team’s gaudy. 904 winning percentage places them at second best at this point in the season of any team in the history of the National Basketball Association but projects ahead of any team’s full-season percentage.
“We haven’t been thinking about (the Spurs) much at all”, Curry said after the game in an interview with ESPN, which televised Friday’s game nationally “It’s a regular-season game between two good teams”. They got out into the open floor and pushed the ball every chance they got.
The latter becomes a puzzling case, too, as the season goes on.
“He’s very confident in his offensive game”, Pacers coach Frank Vogel said of Turner.
Everytime Golden State looked like they were ready to pull away, the Pacers came right back.
But after a high-scoring affair on Friday, and playing on the second night of a back-to-back, it will bear watching whether or not IN has the legs to get out on the break against a Kings team that has been lighting up teams over the past four games.
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TORONTO – DeMar DeRozan scored 33 points and Toronto extended its season-best winning streak to seven games with a victory over Miami.
