With all due respect to Charles Barkley, Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors are definitely worth talking about right now.
Behind 40 points from their former MVP, the Warriors defeated the Brooklyn Nets 121-119 on Thursday. It was their 10th win in 12 games since trading for Jimmy Butler at the NBA trade deadline.
Three of Curry’s 40 points came at the end of the first half. Even by Curry’s incredible standards, his high-arcing, turnaround jumper was a shot that defied belief.
That shot was part of a 22-point comeback for the Warriors after a brutal first quarter. Curry ended up shooting 12-of-20 from the field and 7-of-13 from 3-point range, with four rebounds and four assists. It was also a big game from Butler, who matched a Warriors career high with 25 points plus six assists and three steals.
Curry was the one who had the dagger.
Since trading Andrew Wiggins, Dennis Schröder and others for Butler, the Warriors have simultaneously looked like a different team, and somewhat familiar. So much was made about Golden State finding a next generation to take over after Curry, but the team ended up getting even older by adding Butler and hoping he still had the two-way prowess that wasn’t showing up with the Miami Heat anymore.
In their 11 games since the Butler trade before Thursday, the Warriors lead the NBA in defensive rating and rank fourth in offensive rating, adding up to the best net rating in basketball. Curry has gone from averaging 22.7 points, 6.1 assists and 38.9% 3-point shooting in 42 pre-Butler games to 29.4, 6.8 and 42.9%.
There’s no Klay Thompson this time around, but the Warriors’ new plan is flanking Curry with two veterans who can facilitate and defend in Butler and Draymond Green, who had 10 assists Thursday.
So far, it’s working. The Warriors have gone from firm play-in territory to a 35-28 record, good for sixth place and the final guaranteed playoff spot in the West. They have significant competition right behind them in the Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Clippers, but it took a single month for this season to feel very different.
Resilience-tested Warriors have reason to feel good after road trip
Stephen Curry tweaks his right ankle and limps away. Gary Payton II bleeds from a gash on his nose. Jimmy Butler misses one game and is ineffective in another. Brandin Podziemski tweaks his right knee in one game and grabs his back in 44 seconds into another and never returns.
And Jonathan Kuminga plays not one minute.
The Warriors overcame all of it during a nine-day road trip on the East Coast, winning four of five games, punctuated Thursday night by a comeback 121-119 win over the Nets in Brooklyn that solidified their hold on sixth place in the Western Conference standings.
Stephen Curry’s fireworks notwithstanding, Golden State (35-28) would not be making such a triumphant return home without the contributions of Jimmy Butler III and his bustling band of buccaneers. Aside from the loss to the 76ers in Philadelphia, which Butler missed with back spasms, they did their part, often flourished and proved they can be pivotal.
They were exactly that on this night. After Golden State’s lethargic start sent the Nets out to a 27-5 advantage that allowed them to take a 35-15 lead into the second quarter, the Warriors gathered themselves and unleashed Butler and his bunch.
“Just being honest with yourself that we were playing horrible,” Curry said on “Warriors Postgame Live.” “We’ve got to be accountable, each and every one of us. We weren’t playing hard, and we weren’t playing physical. I think this is the first time I’ve ever gotten an offensive foul to show a little bit of fire to get us going. Whatever it took to kind of shock the system a little bit.
“And that unit that finished the end of the first the beginning of the second got us back into it where we had a chance and then we kind of all took it from there.”
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Six minutes later, the Warriors were within nine and had seized the momentum in a quarter punctuated by Curry’s 38-footer inside the final second.
LOGO STEPH 🤯
pic.twitter.com/r4LKmSiuxa
The Warriors outscored the Nets 40-25 in the second quarter, with Butler scoring 11 points and posting a plus-15 in eight minutes. Gui Santos scored only two points but grabbed three rebounds and was plus-10 in five minutes. Draymond Green was plus-11, with four assists, in 10 minutes. Buddy Hield was plus-9 in four minutes, Pat Spencer plus-9 in six minutes and Quinten Post plus-5 in seven.
“They were all very professional,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters at Barclays Center. “And tonight, to come back from 22 down right out of the gates, give them credit. They just were amazing.”
The delightful surprise for Golden State is the defense being played by the second unit behind Butler, with plenty of support from Green. Their defense coordinated with Curry’s 22-point third quarter to cool the Magic and flip the game to a win at Orlando. They were behind the fourth-quarter thunder that silenced the Hornets in Charlotte. They – Hield, Post and Santos in particular – provided the finishing kick to beat the New York Knicks in Madison Square Garden.
And there they were again in Brooklyn. Post finished with 10 points and seven rebounds in 21 minutes. Gary Payton II, wearing a protective mask over his nose, with 16 points and a team-high nine rebounds in 21 minutes.
Butler has brought not only a rock-solid belief to the squad but a collective toughness that such an undersized team as the Warriors, no matter their talent, must have to prosper during a run to the NBA playoffs and into the postseason.
“Each game is a one-game playoff type vibe,” Curry said. “You just got to figure out a way to win. We are developing our identity and an understanding of how to win, but we can still play better. To have the resilience to come back from down 20 or whatever in the first six minutes, it shows a lot about the belief that we have. We just got to keep going.”
Curry’s right ankle, tweaked on Monday, seems fine; he scored game-high 28 points on Tuesday and a game-high 40 on Thursday. Payton seems fortified by his magic mask. Podziemski’s status is “day to day,” according to Kerr. Kuminga’s return finally has reached the imminent stage.
“Great trip, 4-1,” Kerr said. “And now we’ve got to go home and take care of business.”
Never underestimate the impressionable power of a five-game trip on the opposite coast, especially if it’s the East Coast, with a two-game sweep in New York. The Warriors have more believers now they did when they left the Bay Area on Feb. 26.
Things are coming together nicely for a team that was gargling mud a month ago.
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Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) — Stephen Curry scored 40 points, with a turnaround heave from just inside halfcourt among his seven three-pointers, and the Golden State Warriors climbed out of a 22-point hole to beat the Brooklyn Nets 121-119 on Thursday night.
Jimmy Butler added 25 for the Warriors, who finished 4-1 on their road trip despite falling behind 27-5. They rallied from at least 20 down to win for the third time this season.
Golden State is 10-2 since Butler entered the lineup on Feb. 8 in Chicago. The Warriors erased a 24-point deficit in that game, their biggest comeback of the season.
Cam Johnson scored 26 points and Cam Thomas had 23 for the Nets, who lost their sixth straight.
The Nets made 10 of their first 11 shots and raced to a 27-5 lead. They led much of the game before Golden State surged ahead in the fourth quarter.
Warriors: Gary Payton II had 16 points and nine rebounds wearing a mask after missing a game with a broken nose, but the Warriors lost starting guard Brandin Podziemski after just a minute of action because of lower back soreness.
Nets: The Nets did a lot of things well, but Butler (10 for 10) and Curry (9 for 9) had more free throws than they did as a team (18).
The final basket of the first half was unbelievable even by Curry’s standards. He took a pass from Butler with his feet inside the Nets’ midcourt logo, turned and flung a shot that dropped in, officially from 38 feet. Curry started running toward the locker room after he threw it up and was already off the court with 0.3 seconds still on the clock.
The announced attendance of 18,413 was a record for a Nets game at Barclays Center, which opened in 2012.
The Warriors open a season-high, seven-game homestand against Detroit on Saturday.
The Nets are in Charlotte that night.
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