Brooklyn dodger: 1-2 punch pulls out win
NEW YORK — The Warriors are hardly fretting as Klay Thompson slogs through one of the most pronounced shooting slumps of his NBA career.
Such is the luxury that comes with having Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant. Even with one of the best shooters in NBA history laboring, Golden State is the most daunting matchup in the league.
The latest evidence came Sunday, when it rode more sensational performances from Curry and Durant to a 120-114 win over the Nets at Barclays Center. It didn’t matter that Thompson missed four of his five three-point tries.
Because when Curry and Durant work in lockstep, even the stingiest of defenses can’t contain them. Brooklyn tried plenty of approaches — switches, double-teams, added physicality — against the two MVPs, only to watch them make up more than half of the Warriors’ scoring.
“This is Year 3 for them together,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said. “I think there’s probably as much of a comfort area between the two of them that there’s ever been.”
Curry and Durant operated in concert, taking turns as they eviscerated the Nets with a mix of fadeaway jumpers, deep three-pointers and forays to the rim. Behind that 1-2 punch, Golden State blitzed Brooklyn 31-20 in the second quarter for a 14-point halftime lead.
The Warriors pushed their lead to 19 late in the third quarter before the Nets began chipping away, with threepointers from Spencer Dinwiddie to end the third quarter and begin the fourth. With less than two minutes left, the Nets cut the margin to 110108, only to fall victim to timely shots from the Warriors’ go-to duo. Forty seconds after Durant pumped in a pull-up jumper, Curry drilled a three-pointer from the top of the arc. They hit a combined five free throws over the final 26.9 seconds to seal Brooklyn’s fate.
“I’m sure there’s going to be some games throughout the year where other guys are going to have to come in and make shots for us,” Durant said. “Right now, though, I think we’re both just coming into the game trying to focus on how hard we can play on both ends.”
Curry, who has yet to score fewer than 29 points in a game this season, finished with 35 points and seven rebounds. With seven threepointers, he eclipsed George McCloud (1995-96 season) for an NBA-record seven consecutive games with at least five threes.
Meanwhile, Durant followed up his 25-point fourth quarter in Friday’s rout of the Knicks with 34 points on 20 shots, eight rebounds and six assists. It was the fifth time in seven games this season that he shot better than 50 percent from the field.
Thompson chipped in 18 points, but he was still unable to snap out of his shooting slump from beyond the arc. His 1-for-5 showing put him at 5-for-36 (13.9 percent) from deep this season. Through seven games, Thompson has yet to hit multiple threepointers in a game.
It is no big concern to Golden State. His history suggests that it’s only a matter of time before Thompson, arguably the greatest threepoint shooter in NBA history not named Stephen Curry, goes on one of his signature scoring binges.
In the meantime, the Warriors can do what they often do: lean on the collective brilliance of Curry and Durant.
“I think we understand when the game calls for certain efforts in terms of being able to shoot and score based on the different lineups we have out there,” Curry said. “We’re confident.”