Intrigue comes early, as does win
Stephen Curry scared Warriors fans and Klay Thompson captivated them, all in the first quarter of Thursday night’s game against Orlando.
Both events were false alarms, as it turned out. Curry returned from an early ankle injury to score 25 points, and Thompson cooled off after a smoking-hot start to finish with 29 as the Warriors coasted to a 122-92 victory at Oracle Arena.
Andre Iguodala added 14 points as Golden State clinched the Pacific Division title. This is the first time the Warriors have won the division in three consecutive years.
More important, they posted their first con-
vincing victory since Kevin Durant sprained his left knee Feb. 28 in Washington. The Warriors lost five of their next eight games (including the one in which he got hurt), and none of the three victories came by more than eight points.
Thursday night’s game marked their first win by 20plus points since Feb. 15 against Sacramento. The Warriors led by as many 36 points in a rollicking rout reminiscent of so many home games the past three seasons.
“We just needed to play well,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “I kind of expected this. I thought we’d get back on track this week. You have to dig yourself out when you’re in a little rut.”
Unlike Tuesday night’s win over Philadelphia, when the Warriors sputtered offensively and used their defense to spark a fourth-quarter comeback, this one was clean and efficient from the start. They shot 57.5 percent from the field and moved the ball crisply, accumulating 36 assists (to 15 for the Magic).
But even momentarily contemplating a world without Durant and Curry was unsettling to Warriors fans. That’s what happened less than 90 seconds into the game.
Curry rolled his right ankle after stepping on the foot of Orlando’s Evan Fournier. Curry hobbled to the locker room, leaving the crowd in a state of anxiety for a few minutes.
The Warriors officially described the injury as a “slight tweak.” Curry missed 2:59 of game action, returning to the court to a rousing ovation equal parts enthusiasm and relief.
He didn’t speak to the media afterward, though Kerr said he asked Curry about the ankle and was told it’s “fine.”
“I just didn’t know what happened,” forward Draymond Green said of his initial reaction to Curry departing the court. “I guess anxious would be the word.”
Curry didn’t move especially well the rest of the night, though he still was productive. He missed all four of his attempts from three-point land in the first half but made two threes during a 16-point third quarter.
Curry’s inefficiency from long distance didn’t slow the Warriors, mostly because Thompson showed up in The Zone. This has happened before, of course. Just ask the Kings, whom he torched for 37 points in a quarter Jan. 23, 2015. Or the Pacers, against whom Thompson scored 60 — in three quarters — on Dec. 5.
This time, the Magic — who began the day ranked 25th in the NBA in three-point fieldgoal-percentage defense — played the role of helpless/ hapless victims. Thompson poured home 21 points in the first 8:36, as the Warriors zoomed to a 31-10 lead.
At that point, Thompson was 8-for-9 from the field, including 5-for-5 from long distance. Thursday night’s outburst was his third 20point quarter this season.
This raised the possibility of another all-out Klay Watch, but he added “only” six points in the second quarter and two in the third. He and the Warriors’ other starters spent most of the fourth quarter on the bench.
Green could tell right away that Thompson was feeling it.
“You can definitely see it in his body language, because he’s going to chase the next one,” Green said, smiling. “He continued to move without the ball.”
The Warriors also received a nice offensive boost from Iguodala, who has rediscovered fresh legs at age 33. He repeatedly raced downcourt on fastbreaks, leading to five uncontested dunks.
“He’s pushing the ball so relentlessly and playing with so much energy,” Kerr said. “He’s been fantastic.”
Kerr, incidentally, joined Pat Riley and Rick Carlisle as the only men to win division titles in each of their first three seasons as an NBA head coach.