Warriors come out of doldrums with win
LOS ANGELES: Kevin Durant scored 24 points and Stephen Curry added 20 on Thursday as the NBA champions Golden State Warriors snapped out of the doldrums with a 121-103 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.
The Warriors had lost their last two games and three of their previous four.
They trailed Dallas by as many as 12 points, but took control in the second half to improve their league-leading record to 42-13.
Durant drained a three-pointer to cap an 8-2 run late in the third quarter that gave Golden State a 93-85 lead.
They turned it into a rout in the fourth, pushing the advantage to as many as 21 points.
There were some sloppy moments to be sure, as the Warriors coughed up 20 turnovers.
There was also another technical foul for Draymond Green, who was fined US$50,000 earlier on Thursday for “inappropriate and offensive” remarks to a referee over a non-call after he took an elbow to the face in Golden State’s embarrassing 125-105 loss to Oklahoma City on Tuesday.
With a league-leading 14 technicals this season, Green is two away from an automatic suspension.
Durant is second in technicals and head coach Steve Kerr fourth among coaches — numbers that prompted Kerr to say before the game it’s an area that needs attention.
“We all need to do a much better job of staying poised,” Kerr said. And, largely, they did.
Klay Thompson added 18 points, Green contributed 12 points with 10 rebounds, six assists, two blocked shots and two steals, and David West scored 10 as the Warriors put themselves a game up on the Houston Rockets atop the Western Conference.
The Boston Celtics maintained a one-game advantage over Toronto atop the East with a 110-104 overtime victory over the Wizards in Washington.
Kyrie Irving scored 13 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Celtics bounced back from a loss to the Raptors on Tuesday.
Trailing at half-time, they emerged from a tight third quarter with a five-point lead and stretched it to as many as 10 in the fourth.
But they needed three clutch free throws from Irving, who was fouled on a threepoint attempt and made all the foul shots to knot the score at 98-98 with 9.8 seconds left in regulation.
It went to overtime when Bradley Beal’s tough jump shot contested by Irving at the buzzer missed.
Jaylen Brown scored five of his 18 points for Boston in overtime, when the Celtics out-scored the Wizards 12-6 to finally put the game away.
His three-pointer with 1:43 remaining put the Celtics up 108-103, and the Wizards wouldn’t get the deficit below four points from there.
The Los Angeles Lakers defeated the under-manned Oklahoma City Thunder 106-81.