Earlier in the season Golden State crushed the Spurs in Oakland, 120-90. “Tonight I did some other stuff to try to help the team besides scoring, but I obviously have to play better, and you can pretty much count on that”.
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Boris Diaw, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker and LaMarcus Aldridge started for the silver and black.
At one point, Golden State were up by four points with only a few second left in the game and Andrew Wiggins was fouled by Stephen Curry while taking a three-point shot which gave Minnesota a chance to cut the lead to one.
Curry had his worst regular-season shooting performance in 170 games – dating to February 26, 2014 – making 4 of 18 and 1 of 12 from deep for 14 points as the Warriors’ win streak ended at seven games.
“We need 11 wins because we want to break that thing”, Green said.
“Tonight we executed well on the defensive end, but offensively I didn’t allow us to get comfortable offensively”, Curry said.
Lin was 11 of 18 from the field and hit all four 3-point attempts for the Hornets, including three in the fourth quarter. How often do teams come this close to even 70 wins?
Billed as the first National Basketball Association game between two teams with records of at least 48 games over.500, the game did not disappoint as the heavyweights exchanged blows. Karl-Anthony Towns should win the Rookie of the Year just ahead of Devin Booker of the Suns, and Zach LaVine is showing he’s got more game than highlight-reel dunks. The call to start Diaw over Duncan was seen as a necessary move to combat the small ball style of play that has brought the Warriors great success.
The Spurs slowed the speedy Warriors to a more manageable pace in avenging a 120-90 loss in Golden State on January 25 in the teams’ only previous meeting this season. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson on a rare night combined to shoot 2 for 19 from 3-point range, and the Warriors were right there. Although they were able to perform well defensively against the Spurs, forcing 17 turnovers, cold shooting performances from their two main weapons sealed the game for San Antonio. By doing so, they also turned Curry – the league’s leading scorer – into a playmaker (11 assists) instead and forced Green, rather than Curry or Thompson, to beat them.
While Golden State hasn’t lost consecutive games since the NBA Finals, Minnesota (22-47) is riding a six-week stretch without back-to-back victories. “I don’t know if many guys in that position would have handled it as well as he did”.
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In ATS trends, the Warriors are 5-2 ATS in their last seven games overall but just 1-4 ATS in their last five games against a team below.400, while the Wolves are 11-2 ATS in their last 13 games against a team with a winning record and 5-2 ATS in their last seven games overall.
