In their first game since Steph Curry returned to the sidelines with an injury, the Golden State Warriors crushed the Oklahoma City Thunder 141-114 at Chase Center on Monday night, dominating on both ends of the court.
Here are three key reaction from an impressive Warriors victory, one that makes them 7-2 in their last nine outings without Curry.
Klay Thompson, flame-throwing
Who needs the reigning Finals MVP when the other Splash Brother is raining threes? The Warriors, obviously, but Thompson’s vintage scoring outburst is a reminder of just how dangerous the defending champs can be at their best—and of how they can survive without Curry.
Thompson dropped 27 of his game-high 42 points against the Thunder in a scintillating first half, going 7-of-9 from beyond the arc.
This wasn’t his last triple before intermission, but shows just how much verve Thompson was playing with on Monday when he really had it going. No-pass possessions featuring a two-man dribble hand-off dance are normally reserved for Curry.
Note the score on that late second-quarter three.
Thompson dragged the Dubs back from an early deficit, supplied their first lead moments before the highlight above and drained another long ball seconds prior to halftime, pulling up from the left wing off a broken play to put the home team up 60-53 heading into the locker room.
Any notion halftime would cool him off much was quickly proven foolish. Here’s how Thompson opened the second half, spearheading a game-changing 19-7 run that put Golden State up 79-60 less than five minutes into the third quarter.
Thompson won’t pop off for 12-of-16 three-point shooting every night. Games like this always seemed plausible for an all-time shooter of his caliber post-injury; the bigger question was whether he could stack consistently solid two-way outings in between them.
Thompson averaged 26.0 points on solid efficiency over eight appearances when Curry was sidelined in December and January. If he can duplicate that production until Curry returns, it’ll be much easier for the Warriors to keep pace in a packed Western Conference playoff race.
Coast-to-coast Draymond Green
The Warriors are at their best in the open floor, and with Curry out, Green clearly knew an even bigger onus than normal would fall on him to create scoring opportunities in transition. That’ll be the case for as long as Curry’s injured, but loomed extra large against an Oklahoma City team that loves to amp up the pace offensively yet remains adept at keeping the opposition from pushing the ball—a dynamic Green worked to change from the outset of Monday’s game.
He had three separate coast-to-coast takes in the first half alone, the first coming off a Thunder make. The next two were even more impressive, an indication of the palpable aggression and intensity Green brought to both sides of the ball in the Warriors’ initial game sans Curry.
So much for lingering concerns about Draymond’s calf injury. This is about as controlled and explosive as he looks raking and taking.
Green made both splash and subtle plays defensively pretty much all night, but especially after Oklahoma City came out with an edge and confidence Golden State failed to match. Green’s highlight-reel blocked three-pointer of Jaylin Williams invigorated his teammates and jolted Chase Center, a ridiculous display of anticipation, quickness and length that will go on his Defensive Player of the Year resume.
Still, this was Draymond’s most eye-popping possession of an awesome performance full of them.
Thompson’s blue-flame shooting night will draw national headlines, and helped rescue the Warriors from a sleepy start as Oklahoma City opened the game splashing triples, too. Given Curry’s absence, it’s safe to say Golden State falls to the Thunder without Thompson’s scorcher.
But Green was the best player on the floor Monday night, and it didn’t seem particularly close when Thompson wasn’t flame-throwing.
Andrew Wiggins has been extremely slow to find his footing on offense since returning from the longest absence of his career in early January. Considering the gravity of his recent struggles and Golden State’s dire need for him to be a reliable scorer with Curry back on the shelf, Wiggins’ 18 points and four assists on 8-of-15 shooting versus Oklahoma City might be the most important takeaway from his performance.
He hit a couple pull-up twos, scored multiple times on the block and found space on the weak side and back line for cutting finishes from Green and Jordan Poole—embracing his inner floor general en route to a career-high 12 assists. There were some rough moments, including a hideous air-balled three-pointer, but Wiggins obviously took a much-needed step in the right direction on that end regardless.
His standout play on the other side of the ball looms larger to Golden State’s big-picture hopes of repeating as champions, though, and was a reminder that Wiggins really can be a “stopper” against the league’s best.
Wiggins frustrated Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in isolation over and over on Monday, resulting in a rare off night for Oklahoma City’s budding superstar after he got whatever he wanted early.
Gilgeous-Alexander went just 2-of-10 after starting 4-of-6, finishing with 20 points on 16 shot attempts, Wiggins and the Warriors doing a much more diligent job avoiding soft switches after the game’s opening minutes. When the Canadian brethren were matched up at the top of the floor one-on-one, it was Wiggins who won the battle most often—sometimes in suffocating fashion.
https://streamable.com/387od7
Golden State doesn’t need Wiggins to rip threes at the near-league-best rate he did before going down with injury in early December to beat top-tier competition come playoff time. Offense will have come from plenty of places if the Dubs make it that far.
Elite individual defense is what the Warriors need most from Wiggins, and he provided it time and again checking Gilgeous-Alexander.
Source: https://clutchpoints.com
