Warriors vs Knicks Recap: Stephen Curry Messes Around At MSG, Klay Thompson Bounces Back

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warriors vs knicks recap (Photo: @karleebedford Instagram account)

Tonight was a very good game for the Golden State Warriors as they were able to blowout the New York Knicks, 126-103.

The Warriors were fueled by a triple double by Stephen Curry, who had 27 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists. Curry tallied the feat in three quarters.

FIRST QUARTER

The game got underway with a Carmelo Anthony jumper, then was answered by a Klay Thompson and-one layup; Thompson had his best game in a long time.

Then Curry got into gear and started to score efficiently with Raymond Felton playing defense on him, while Pablo Prigioni guarded Thompson. The Knicks stopped the bleeding by taking Felton off of Curry, but the game was already a double0-digit deficit for the Knicks after only 12 minutes of action, as the Warriors led 38-27.

SECOND QUARTER

The beating continued in the second quarter for the Knicks, as the quarter kicked off with a Steve Blake splash. Jermaine O’Neal then scored seven straight for Golden State and would force New York into a timeout.

The Knicks would cut the lead back down to 10, but then Curry hit a jumper to change the momentum once again.

The lead got pretty healthy by halftime with the Warriors leading 73-52. The #SplashBrothers had a combined 33 points.

THIRD QUARTER

As the third quarter started, Felton fouled Curry on a three-point attempt, followed by Curry hitting all three free throws. Thompson added three splashes from downtown to help the Warriors keep the lead steady at 99-80 heading into the final frame.

FOURTH QUARTER

The fourth quarter got pretty chippy as Marreese Speights and Tyson Chandler got into it, resulting into a double technical, although it didn’t seem Speights had done anything wrong.

Later, Speights made a hard drive to the basket and Chandler gave him a hard foul. The resulting confrontation got Chandler his second technical, resulting in an automatic ejection. Chandler wasn’t trying to make a play on the ball; he was frustrated after Speights had hit a couple jumpers. Jim Barnett surmised on-air that Chandler wanted to get thrown out of the embarrassing game by the Knicks.

Speights was laughing because shortly after, as he had hit a 20-foot jumper and was fouled.

RECAP ROUND-UP

Zach Schonbrun of the New York Times:

The Knicks could have anticipated this, knowing how the Warriors’ All-Star leader, Stephen Curry, revels in performing on the type of stage that a Friday night game at Madison Square Garden offers. In Curry’s last game at the Garden, a year ago, he scored 54 points, with 11 3-pointers, one short of the N.B.A. record.
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Curry didn’t light up the Garden as he did that night last February, but he did finish with his fourth career triple-double: 27 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in 30 minutes.
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“It’s one of those arenas with history and you look forward to playing here,” Curry said. “To play well and impact the game the way I wanted to definitely felt great.”

Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area:

STANDOUT PERFORMER
Though the demolition of the Knicks was a team effort, Curry was the catalyst. He bounced back from conceivably his worst game of the season with a superb effort.
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He was so good, so quickly, he sat out the entire fourth quarter, as did Thompson.
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TURNING POINT
Leading 48-39 with 7:30 left in the half, the Warriors went on a 25-13 run to build a 21-point (73-52) first-half lead. Curry, Lee and O’Neal combined to make 9 of 10 shots in the second quarter.
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The Warriors led by as much as 27, and Knicks never again got within single digits.

Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group writes:

Without much to cheer for, New York Knicks fans at Madison Square Garden took to saluting the Warriors’ Stephen Curry instead.
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Curry grabbed a third-quarter rebound, and the crowd roared knowing he had notched a triple-double and come through with yet another command performance at The Garden in the Warriors’ 126-103 win Friday.
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“Once I got the last (rebound), I heard a couple rumbles in the crowd and kind of put two and two together,” Curry said.

Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:

Curry finished with 27 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists as an encore to his 54-point onslaught at “the mecca” last season and helped the Warriors (36-23) make an emphatic statement in response to their 20-point drubbing Wednesday in Chicago.
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The Warriors have won five of six games since the All-Star break, including starting 2-1 on this six-game road trip, to move into a sixth-place tie with Dallas in the Western Conference. [The Mavericks host Chicago later Friday.] .
The Knicks (21-38) have lost seven of eight, including a 26-point beat down Thursday in Miami, and they never showed up to play Friday. Carmelo Anthony needed 26 shots to score 23, and New York shot a combined 37.9 percent from the floor.
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The Warriors didn’t have any of the same problems, scoring at will and getting contributions from just about everyone on their roster. Along with Curry’s triple-double, Klay Thompson poured in 25 points in 29 minutes, O’Neal had 15 points in 20 minutes, Marreese Speight added 12 points in 10 minutes, and Lee chipped in 10 points.

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