The Golden State Warriors (44-4) were at the Verizon Center to face the Washjington Wizards (21-25).
The Warriors were without Festus Ezeli (knee) and James McAdoo (toe)
1st Quarter – Cheffin’
The Wizards drew first blood as Garrett Temple hit a three from the top, then got another jumper to fall, but the Warriors kept pace as Andrew Bogut put back a missed jumper Klay Thompson with a two-hand dunk.
Harrison Barnes was on-point with the jumpers early, as a steal of a Marcin Gortat “stone hands” mis-catch eventually led to a jumper from a pitch from Bogut, then Draymond Green blocked a John Wall dunk attempt, rebounded a missed Temple three, and Greeen found Barnes for another jumper from the right side.
Stephen Curry was, for the first time in a couple games, on target early, as a post up on the right block by Draymond led to a pass back out to Curry, who side-stepped to the right to launch successfully from beyond the arc, then Steph got a left side three off the dribble, which gave Golden State a 12-8 lead with 7:55 to go.
Temple tried to answer with another trey attempt, but missed, and after Thompson grabbed the board, Curry came up and hit a stop-and-pop triple in transition, using a shoulder fake to create space from Wall. Barnes happened to be fouled on the rebound by Otto Porter and drained the “and-one” free throw, which put the Warriors up, 16-8, with 7:36 remaining.
Golden State wasn’t done, though, and after Temple missed a jumper that Draymond caught in stride, Klay ran the floor and got a dunk on the fast break with the right-handed slam:
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Washington assistant coach Don Newman, in for head coach Randy Wittman took a timeout with 7:11 to go, with the Warriors up 18-8.
After the timeout, “Chef Curry” put his hat on and, after Barnes missed and Thompson did well to put both hands up and grab the miss on a Wall attack in transition, Steph shook off Jared Dudley on the right side and drained a triple over him.
Dudley came back with his own three, but Curry timed a cut down the lane and got a layup via nice bounce pass from Green in the deep right post:
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Wall answered with a catch-and-shoot jumper, but Draymond gave a high pick to Steph and Curry drilled another trey from the top to make it 26-13, Warriors, with 5:24 left.
Klay added a three after Bogut saved a late pass from Curry, but after Wall missed an ill-advised three that Andre Iguodala boarded, Draymond scored a layup by cutting to the hole early in the offense.
That’s when Dudley inbounded the ball after the made bucket to Wall and Steph harassed and cause Wall to lose the ball. Curry and Dudley gave chase with Wall losing sight of it, and as Dudley dove and missed, Steph snagged it, pivoted, noticed he was within (his) range from the deep left wing, and canned another three from about 28 feet.
That gave Curry 20 points already on the night, 6-for-7 from the field, and the Warriors a 34-18 lead as the Wizards called another timeout.
Out of the timeout, Beal got a cock-back two-handed dunk from the right baseline, but Curry went off a Marreese Speights high screen and banged in another triple.
Wall answered with a jumper from the left wing, Curry committed his third turnover as he spotted Iguodala too late on a backdoor cut and sent a line drive straight to Nene Hilario’s chest, but the Wizards couldn’t capitalize and after both teams traded misses, Green corralled a missed jumper from Nene, Iguodala led the break, and found Speights for the reverse layup.
Ramon Sessions scored after that, but once again, Steph came back with another silencer, splitting Sessions and Nene, which lead to a long two-pointer, giving him 25 points with 2.9 seconds remaining and a 43-28 lead for Golden State after the first period buzzer:
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2nd Quarter – Chef Curry Part Deux
With most of the starters on the bench, Speights got two jumpers and Barnes a three, but a variety of Wizards got into the scoring action and a 10-4 mini-run pulled the Wizards to within 55-46 with 5:31 to go as Warriors head coach Steve Kerr had called two timeouts to try and stem the tide.
After the second one, Kerr brought back Curry, Green, and Bogut to join Thompson and Brandon Rush.
Wall made a jump pass that got pounced on by both Draymond and Rush, with Rush throwing a dart to a leaking Curry, who tried to draw contact on the fast break layup from Temple, made the lefty high-banker without even looking at it, but didn’t get the call:
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Later, Wall and Thompson traded layups, but then Wall missed a jumper, Steph rebounded it and, in transition in the paint, froze Porter with a wrap-around-the-waist dribble layup:
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That gave Curry 31 points on an incredible 12-for-13 from the field, 7-for-8 from downtown.
Wall was up to the challenge and got a hesitation drive past Green, but Draymond came right back with his own dribble drive past Dudley, with the foul. Green’s “and-one” free throw gave the Warriors a 66-52 with 2:14 remaining.
Wall made an impressive spin for a layup past multiple Warriors starting with Thompson, but Klay came back shortly thereafter with a three from the right corner, Steph’s first assist of the game off a drive.
With 29.9 seconds remaining, Curry hit another triple, giving him 34 points for the half, hitting the shot off a high pick-and-roll from Green, Steph’s eighth three-pointer of the night:
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Wall answered yet again with an “and-one” layup, his 19th and 20th points, driving the length of the floor in just 1.3 seconds, but was over-shadowed by Curry as Wall was called for a blocking foul 35 feet out.
Steph missed one of the free throws, but drew a charge on Wall on the next play, anticipating the attack of the rim from away from the ball and taking the contact just outside the restricted area.
Wall was upset at not only that call but the one before that, picked up a technical, and Curry buried the free throw for his 36th point, giving the Warriors a 74-60 lead at the half over the Wizards.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @caiterrell)
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