Sports: Curry scores 31 points as Warriors beat Pistons, 116-106.
Warriors look like team that’s blending together well in road win over Pistons
Weeks of work began to pay off as the Warriors beat the Pistons 116-106 Tuesday in Detroit, providing glimpses that Stephen Curry is starting to mesh with his new-look supporting cast.
Curry finished with 31 points on 9- of17 shooting (5 for 9 from 3-point range) and six assists, and got key contributions from Andrew Wiggins (27 points, seven rebounds, three assists, two blocks), Kelly Oubre Jr. (14 points, five rebounds) and Eric Paschall (10 points) in the Warriors’ final game of the season- opening fourgame trip.
“We’re getting better every game. We’re learning each other, knowing what each other likes,” Wiggins said. “The chemistry is building.”
Entering Tuesday’s game with the league’s worst True Shooting percentage, the Warriors (2-2) hoped a newly-simplified offense would lead to easier shots, especially for Oubre, who missed his first 17 3-point attempts to start the season. Curling off a screen set by center Kevon Looney, Oubre took the handoff and buried his first 3-pointer 2½ minutes into the game, prompting applause from the Warriors’ bench. He was 1 for 4 on 3s in the game.
The strong shooting start continued as the Warriors opened the game shooting
47.4% from the floor and finished shooting 49.3% overall. However, they trailed the Pistons (0- 4) 29-24 after the first quarter because of their inability to box out. As a team, the Pistons grabbed 16 offensive rebounds and out-scored Golden State 2010 in second-chance points, but were held to 38% shooting overall.
“We got hurt by a lot of offensive rebounds, but we were getting stops,” said head coach Steve Kerr. “We were smarter, tougher, contesting more shots, didn’t give them a whole lot of easy stuff.”
Bla ke Gr if f in’s f ree throws after Detroit’s offensive board opened up a 12- point lead midway through the second quarter, but Golden State cut into that lead and trailed 51- 48 by halftime. After taking an elbow to the head in the first half, Griffin did not return to the game due to concussion protocols after 17 minutes, eight points, five rebounds and three assists.
The Pistons’ defensive strategy to swarm Curry every time he touched the ball limited him to just six shot attempts in the first half, but he used that attention to pick apart Detroit’s defense and set up teammates for open shots.
Draymond Green, out with a foot injury, watched from the sideline in the third quarter as Curry found Paschall on the receiving end of a pick-androll for a two-handed dunk. On the next possession, Curry found Oubre cutting to the basket for another dunk.
But it was with Curry mostly on the bench in the fourth quarter when the Warriors made the gamedeciding 20- 4 run, powered by 17 fourth- quarter points from Wiggins and highlighted by an exciting block, dribble and dunk sequence from rookie center James Wiseman. Curry re- entered the game and seized Golden State’s largest lead of the game at 13 when he drilled a 3-pointer with 4:17 remaining.
“A great feeling to turn what was a mess of a road trip into a really good one,” Kerr said. “We’ve only played four games, but it was our most solid game.”
On Friday, the Warriors will host the Portland Trail Blazers at Chase Center in their home opener.
A MESSAGE FOR OUBRE >> Kerr offered words of wisdom and a message for Oubre, who struggled in the first three games.
Kerr, the all-time leader in 3-point percentage, used tricks such as watching old games, meditation and notso-subtle reminders written on his shoes to let loose during his 15-year playing career.
Few people know better than Kerr how to snap out of a slump. In fact, there was practically a book written about it. In Chris Ballard’s 2009 book, “The Art of a Beautiful Game,” Kerr revealed that during one particular cold streak while playing with the Chicago Bulls in the late 1990s, he wrote “F.I.” on his shoe.
“You can figure out what those initials stood for,” Kerr said.
Years later as an analyst for TNT, Kerr was preparing for a broadcast when a college coach told him he had gifted Ballard’s book to his team. Three players had been struggling from 3-point range and, in the next game, took the court with Kerr’s “F. I.” slogan written in marker on their shoes.
For Oubre, the message is the same. Before Tuesday’s game, the coach told the wing to focus on the little things: play good defense, rebound and set screens. He may also have shared something written on an old pair of Nikes.