The Warriors picked up their 10th straight win on Tuesday, taking down the Rockets 123-110 in the Dubs’ final home game before NBA All-Star Weekend.
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The Rockets then scored the first eight points of the third quarter – including 3-pointers by Corey Brewer and Trevor Arizona – for a 74-69 lead.
But these Warriors teams are far different and that showed against a resilient Heat team that battled all night but was unable to handle the depth of the Warriors despite the rare off-shooting night from Curry.
“Eventually we get 20 points a game back from Brandon Knight, we get Ronnie Price intangibles; Archie can go to his natural spot, Devin can play less minutes but be effective still, and then Markieff has more shooters around the perimeter”.
Said Curry: “We handled a lot of challenges pretty well this first half of the season and kept our high level of consistency”.
“We’re not going to blow everybody out”.
Kerr said he had a headache after the Warriors beat the Rockets and appeared uncomfortable during a brief postgame news conference. He took a leave of absence from October 1 to January 25 for complications following two back surgeries. Thompson hit a 3-pointer off a behind-the-back pass from Curry to give the Warriors a 73-54 lead in the third.
The Warriors, 47-4 this year, still have the best ever regular season record in their sights, needing to go at least 26-5 to surpass the Chicago Bulls’ 72-10 record in 1995-96.
James Harden overcame a scoreless first quarter to finish with 37 points, five assists and five rebounds in Houston’s eighth straight loss to Golden State.
“We didn’t win the game but we gained some momentum. It was a competitive game against an undefeated team at home and we put ourselves in a position to win”, Harden said. Golden State could close the series with a 3-0.
Harden, who entered Tuesday two points per game behind Curry for the league’s scoring title, didn’t get on the board until he made a pair of free throws with the Warriors leading 52-38 and 7:01 on the clock in the second quarter.
Now the Warriors can wrap up the first-half of the season and gather some rest before bursting out of the second-half gate for six straight road games.
Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green may look obsessed with triple-doubles, but the truth is that he remains one of the highlights of the 2015-16.
“I’m really proud of him”, Warriors center Andrew Bogut said of Barnes, who had two points on 1-for-4 shooting through three quarters.
The key points: The Warriors want to make sure they have home-court advantage over the Spurs in a potential Western Conference finals and also want to set up a Spurs-Oklahoma City conference semifinal clash.
Houston centre Dwight Howard recorded a double-double with 16 points and 15 rebounds.
The Warriors have had an incredible season, winning 92.2 per cent of their games, and for the most part totally dominating.
Kobe Bryant’s final game in Cleveland was reduced to a sideshow when Cavaliers forward Kevin Love re-injured his surgically repaired left shoulder in the first half of a win over Los Angeles.
The Warriors’ starting backcourt outscored the Rockets’ starting guards 29-4 in the first quarter.
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Overall, the Rockets have won six of the last seven matchups.
