What we learned from Klay and TJD’s big games throughout the Warriors’ win over the Blazers
Long gone are the days when the Warriors dominated the third quarter. On Sunday, the Warriors lost a big lead in the blink of an eye for the second game in a row and the tenth time this season.
For the second game in a row, though, the Warriors got past their own anger and beat the Portland Trail Blazers 118–114 at Moda Center.
The Warriors had lost seven straight games on the road before the win. It was also their first back-to-back wins since the first two games of November. And the win happened on the last night of a historic streak.
Steph Curry scored 37 points and made six 3-pointers in one game, but he was held to a season-low seven points on just 2 of 12 shooting. He tried to make eight 3s but failed all of them.
Curry had made a 3-pointer in 268 straight games before tonight. On November 8, 2018, he didn’t make a three-pointer in a regular-season game. Curry has done a lot to help the Warriors this season. They helped him out and had his back on Sunday.
Rookie Brandin Podziemski kept taking the most charges, and with 0.6 seconds left, he did one to save Curry and the Warriors. Klay Thompson scored 28 points, which was the most on the Blazers’ team, and Andrew Wiggins scored 25 points after coming off the bench.
Even though Thompson has been a fighter in the NBA his whole career, his three basketball homes are in Los Angeles, Portland, and the Bay Area. And his last three games show that he can shoot well from all three spots.
Thompson scored 30 points in Los Angeles on Thursday night. He made 9 of 15 shots and 8 of 12 three-pointers. The next night, he went home to Chase Center and scored 24 points while making 7 of 19 shots and 4 of 9 from deep. Before Sunday, Thompson had made 47 percent of his 3-point shots in Portland, which was his best performance in a game against a rival.
His hand stayed warm in Oregon, and history was still on his side. Early on, he scored a lot. In the end, he scored 28 points by making 11 of 16 shots and 5 of 10 -point shots.
Not long after the final buzzer went off, Stephen Curry ran along the bench and pointed to the cheering crowd. He could feel the joy of victory again after being hurt so badly.
Curry said, “We haven’t won in a while,” after scoring 37 points to help the Warriors beat the Brooklyn Nets 124–120 at Chase Center on Saturday night. “It’s great to have won and gotten over the hump.”The Warriors have been chasing the clear but elusive finish line, and this was their 21st clutch game, which is the most in the NBA. But Curry was the personification of the word more than anyone else.
In the fourth quarter, there were two ties and four lead changes. Curry scored 16 points by making 7 of 7 shots from the field, including 2 of 2 from deep. He scored 12 points in a row over the course of two minutes and twelve seconds. There will be no more ties or changes of head. Game.
Kawhi Leonard said of Curry, “He willed us to victory,” after Golden State won for the third time in three weeks. “Thank you for him. Before their star player came through when it mattered most, Golden State’s play was choppy, uneven, and far from perfect.
“He was unique tonight. He can make shots from all over the court, including at the basket, middle, and 25 feet away. This is something that you probably won’t see again in this league. I’m grateful for what Steph did. It pushed us over the edge.”
Curry made it clear that he didn’t want the Warriors to let this one slip away. The Warriors have a bad habit of losing painful games late in the game.
It was clear that worried fans were afraid that another winning game would end in a “L” when the Warriors, who were ahead by 16 points at halftime, started to lose steam. No one felt the weight of leading the team on the court and speaking for the group more than Curry did during the uncertainty.
Curry was very good at time. Every member of the Warriors had a long week. They got back home after 10 days on the road, where they lost all of their games and dealt with Draymond Green’s second, indefinite ban this season.
“The subject has been talked over a lot,” Curry said. “There is a lot of noise around us. The day before the game, we had a meeting that helped us figure out where we were and what was going on. Everyone said what they thought.