Warriors 117, Suns 107: Golden State rides thirdquarter blitz.
With Stephen Curry out until at least the second round of the playoffs, Kevin Durant continues to show he can shepherd Golden State through until Curry returns.
In Sunday night’s 117107 win over the Suns at Oracle Arena, Durant was the driving force behind a game-changing rally.
He needed only 19 shots to score a team-high 29 points. Four of his eight assists came in the third quarter, when the Warriors outscored Phoenix 36-18. In addition to notching his 37th multi-block game of the season, Durant corralled 11 rebounds for his 13th double-double.
“Kevin is going to be Kevin no matter what,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said. “The thing with him is that he has as much ability as anybody, pretty much anybody ever in the history of the game. … He’s a really gifted player and can adapt to anything that he sees.”
Unable to rely on Curry’s floor-spacing ability, Golden State is following a familiar blueprint: Slow the tempo, ratchet up the defensive intensity and roll its offense through Durant.
The problem Sunday was that, less than 24 hours after watching teammate Patrick McCaw (lumbar-spine contusion) be wheeled off the court on a stretcher in Sacramento, the Warriors took a while to show signs of life against the NBA’s worst team.
But after Golden State dug a 14-point secondquarter hole, Durant focused on getting others involved. In the third, Draymond Green (13 points, 12 assists, six rebounds) set an aggressive tone as Quinn Cook thrived on jumpers for 11 of his 19 points.
The Warriors shot 15-for-21 from the field, including 5-for-7 from three-point range, in those 12 minutes to build a 17point cushion. In his second game back from a thumb injury that sidelined him more than two weeks, Klay Thompson (23 points on 10-for-19 shooting) showed that the NBA’s best No. 3 option has no qualms settling in as Durant’s top sidekick.
“I felt like everyone came and contributed,” Durant said. “I don’t think on this team there’s one guy bossing everybody around and telling everyone what to do. I just think we’re all working together. You see the ball moving four or five times in a possession.”
Since he was ejected late in the first half Thursday in his first game back from a rib injury, Durant has guided the Warriors to wins over Sacramento and Phoenix with a combined 56 points, 21 rebounds, 13 assists and three blocks in 66 minutes. Along the way, he has played with a renewed creativity.
Suddenly not worried about taking shots away from arguably the best shooter in NBA history, Durant has delivered a steady stream of crossovers, fade-away jumpers and highlight-worthy dunks. Late in the second quarter Sunday, he curled off a screen, stopped at the top of the arc, laced a crossover through his legs and drained a three-pointer.
The Kings and Suns, however, have been only a prelude to more daunting tests for Durant and the Curry-less Warriors. Four of Golden State’s final five regular-season games are against teams probably bound for the playoffs, and three are on the road.
“We have four All Stars, and they all make a huge impact in very different ways,” Kerr said. “When they are playing together like they have the last couple of nights, it’s impressive. That’s how we have to play.”