As Warriors coach Steve Kerr said prior to this one, it’s good to be back in the mix. With their second undermanned win in a week’s span against their company at the top of the Western Conference, the Warriors have done as much as they can to prove they belong.
Golden State hung on for a 123-116 road win against the Utah Jazz, despite playing their second game without Draymond Green (health and safety protocols) and allowing a 14-point lead to slip away during the first six minutes of the second half. The Warriors (28-7) opened up a 2.5-game lead over the third-place Jazz (26-10) in the Western Conference standings, with a one-game grasp on the Suns (27-8) for the top spot.
“The win tonight and the win in Phoenix speak to our depth,” Kerr said afterward. “The versatility — the ability for us to play a lot of lineups — but also the character of the group, the fact that we have so many guys that are just single-minded in terms of wanting to win and willing to take a back seat when it’s not their night and then be ready to play when it is.”
Utah pulled even for the final time at 111 with just over 2 minutes left, but Steph Curry and Andre Iguodala responded with the clutch shots that allowed Golden State to hang on. Iguodala’s 3-pointer with 40 seconds left sealed the game, and Curry sank the final foul shots.
In the absence of Green, the Warriors had a number of contributors do their best stat sheet-stuffing impersonations: Iguodala scored 12 points, dished out eight assists and grabbed seven rebounds. Otto Porter Jr. tied a career high with eight assists to go with 20 points and seven boards, and Kevon Looney also dished out a career high in assists with six to go with seven rebounds and eight points.
“There were so many guys who played well. I felt like Andre held it together for us when things went haywire in that third quarter,” Kerr said. “Andre’s amazing, the way he directs the offense and distributes it. … The two 3s he knocked down late in the game were enormous shots.”
Golden State also got 25 points from Andrew Wiggins, 12 from Gary Payton II and 10 from Jordan Poole in his first game back in almost three weeks (health and safety protocols).
Beforehand, Kerr said he was “flattered that we are considered a threat to Utah or Phoenix,” the two finalists last season in the Western Conference. The Jazz have been perennial contenders, while it took time last year for the upstart Suns to gain respect on their way to the NBA Finals.
The Warriors have been absent from the conversation the past two seasons. But they’ve now beaten both the top teams from last season and are only set to get stronger with the return of Klay Thompson on the horizon. For now, they’re also playing without Green, who was stuck in health and safety protocols for a second straight game.
Despite the loss of their primary facilitator, the Warriors moved the ball freely and executed on offense. Porter filled the stat sheet after he was held scoreless in 26 minutes in his last outing, which was also the Warriors’ worst offense performance of the year.
Six players scored in double figures, led by Curry’s 28 that paired with a team-high nine assists. The Warriors assisted on 39 of their 46 field goals.
“Otto was unbelievable. Wiggs has been so consistent all year. … They’re talented and they’re gamers,” Curry said. “They understand they’re going to have to play like that for us to do special things this year. The opportunity is there … understanding it’s not just going to be me, Draymond and Klay — it’s going to be everybody out there doing what we need to do to win when it matters.”
By the end of the third quarter, Warriors had already matched the season-low 86 points they were held to in their last contest, Tuesday’s 89-86 loss to Denver. By that point, however, they had watched a 14-point advantage built during the first two quarters lead completely disappear.
The Warriors offense, which revved to the tune of 64 points and 53% shooting during the first half, mustered only 22 in first 12 minutes after intermission. Just past the midpoint of the third quarter, Bojan Bogdanović sank a 3-pointer to give Utah its first lead, 75-74, since early in the first quarter, erasing the Warriors’ 64-50 halftime advantage. The 41 points the Warriors allowed in the third were the most of any quarter this season.
The Warriors didn’t lead again until the 5:18 mark of the fourth quarter, when Wiggins knocked down a 3 to make it 106-103.
“Utah responded like we knew they would,” Kerr said. “They’re one of the best teams in the league. … That’s to be expected against a great team: they’re going to bounce back and go on a run. They did a great job of moving the ball, getting up into us defensively and making us uncomfortable and controlled that third quarter.”
The presence of three-time DPOY Rudy Gobert forced the Warriors to change up their attack, too. Curry pulled up from the free-throw line, and Looney also employed the midrange from the baseline and the top of the key.
The Jazz, the best free-throw shooting team in the NBA, got to the line 28 times and sank 22 of them, eight more than the Warriors’ 14 in their 21 attempts from the foul line, padded by five in the final seconds from Curry.
The discrepancy at the foul line almost proved critical. The Warriors’ frustrations boiled over in the third quarter, with coach Steve Kerr and Andre Iguodala picking up technical fouls within minutes of each other.
Looney picked up his fifth personal with 7:23 to go and eventually fouled out; it was his third, after Porter didn’t get a call under the basket to go his way with 6:08 to go in the third, that set off Kerr and led to his technical.
Golden State separated itself beyond the arc with 17 3-pointers on 32 attempts (53.1%) while holding the Jazz, another top shooting team, to a 31.8% clip on 44 attempts from distance.
With six more Saturday en route to his team-high 28 points, Curry made more 3-point history: splashes in 158 consecutive contests, besting a record he already set during a stretch from 2016-18.
Source: www.mercurynews.com