Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry left Tuesday’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers with a lower left leg injury and didn’t return, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Rusty Simmons.
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The Warriors seemed to nearly toy with the Charlotte Hornets on Monday night before turning on the jets midway through the third quarter and cruising to 111-101 victory, their 35th in a row at Oracle Arena. “Other than that, we know what they are and how great they are as a basketball team”. I was getting open shots, running the break. Klay Thompson has had to carry the backcourt in Curry’s brief absence, and he is more than capable of doing so. “We’re playing against the world champs”.
Curry, who is recovering from a contusion on the shin, banged it against the leg of 7-foot-2, 290-pound Lakers center Roy Hibbert with 7:39 left in the third quarter. Curry immediately began hobbling as the Warriors called a timeout. With guys like Curry, Green, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston acting as distributors, Thompson has had no problem fitting into the role of finisher for a team that highly relies on his ability to act as a secondary floor spacer. “That’s what happened tonight”.
But the night belonged to Green, who had 13 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists to join Tom Gola in 1959-60 as the only Warriors players ever to get triple-doubles in three straight games.
Guard Jordan Clarkson led the Lakers (8-28) with 23 points. Thompson scored 22 points in the first quarter, which helped the Warriors notch 37 points over the first 12 minutes.
On the court, impressive numbers abounded for Golden State (32-2). Larry Nance Jr. scored nine points and pulled down seven rebounds.
“We want that thing to get well, because right now the way it looks, he plays and a couple days later it gets sore again”. “It was just one of those nights”. “It was a combination of Klay Thompson and Klay Thompson”.
The Warriors held the upper hand through most of the first half after a 12-2 flurry that broke a 20-20 tie late in the first quarter.
He was 9 for 14 from the field, including 4 for 7 from 3-point range. They swing the ball around the perimeter and get high percentage three-point shots, so the Lakers need to guard the three-point line closely and limit open shots. So we put him back out …
Notes: Kobe Bryant sat out his third straight game with a sore shoulder. G Leandro Barbosa (left shoulder sprain) and F James Michael McAdoo (sprained toe, left foot) remain sidelined.
As a team, the Lakers had 25 points at the end of the first period, meaning Thompson only missed matching the entire Lakers’ team by three points in the quarter. He’s also on a hot streak right now, having scored at least 26 points in five of the last six games and at least 30 in three of the last four.
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“I was just trying to go as hard as I could and not feel pain on any of the moves that I made”, Curry said. Los Angeles visits the Sacramento Kings on Thursday, while Golden State plays the Trail Blazers at Portland on Friday.
