Stephen Curry greeted by MVP chants in Brooklyn as Warriors dominate Nets
Stephen Curry left the court to one last chorus of “MVP! MVP!” chants, a sound that even he thought was weird. It is, after all, Kevin Durant’s home arena. It was Curry’s night, though.
Curry had 37 points, easily winning a matchup of the NBA’s top two scorers while Durant had his worst game of the season, and the Golden State Warriors beat the Brooklyn Nets 117-99 on Tuesday.
A matchup with his former teammate had Curry revved up, as did the chance to bounce back from a loss in Charlotte on Sunday.
“So it’s not the playoffs, but there’s an intensity that you have to show up to beat a team like that,” Curry said. “You thrive off that competitive atmosphere, knowing that there’s a lot of talent on the floor.”
Durant came in leading the league with 29.6 points per game, but he managed only 19, the first time all season he didn’t hit 20. He shot 0 for 8 in the decisive third quarter and finished 6 for 19 after sitting the fourth.
“They got long defenders, guys that can help, so seeing bodies all the time when I had the ball, that’s what great defenses do. And then some shots I wish I could’ve had back,” Durant said. “I rushed a few once we got down 15, 20. I’m trying to get it back so fast you end up taking bad shots and rushed shots.”
Curry almost caught his former teammate for the NBA scoring lead, making nine three-pointers and raising his average to 28.7 per game. Durant dropped to 28.9.
Much of his struggles were due to the defense of Draymond Green, the former defensive player of the year.
“You can’t do a better job defensively than what Draymond did tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
James Harden scored 24 points for the Nets, who came home from a 5-1 road trip and fell flat in the nationally televised matchup. Durant won both meetings last season against the Warriors, his first playing for Brooklyn after leaving Golden State. But this is a much improved Warriors team this season and it showed during a dominant third quarter when they outscored the Nets 35-18 after a close first half.
Nets coach Steve Nash, meanwhile, conceded his team are not in the same class as the Warriors, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls, who have all beaten Brooklyn this season.
“Well, I just don’t think we’re in that category yet,” Nash said. “We got a lot of work to do. We’re trying to improve as a group, get better and hopefully we can find a way to overcome some of our deficiencies by the end of the year.”