NBA Curry shines in GSW victory
PHOENIX (AP) — Stephen Curry shook off a poor shooting performance by scoring 10 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter and the Golden State Warriors finally broke open a tight game to beat the Phoenix Suns 117-107 on Friday night.
Klay Thompson scored 25 points for the Warriors, who beat the Suns for the 18th consecutive time. Kevin Durant added 21 points and DeMarcus Cousins 18.
Kelly Oubre Jr. scored 25 points and Deandre Ayton 23 for Phoenix, which was without scoring leader Devin Booker due to a tight right hamstring.
Mikal Bridges and Josh Jackson added 19 apiece for the Suns, who led 85-82 entering the final quarter.
Golden State’s Draymond Green was ejected after drawing his second technical between the third and fourth quarters.
The matchup of the teams at the top and bottom of the Western Conference standings was a lot closer than anticipated — and in large part because it took Curry a while to find his stroke.
Through three quarters, Curry was 2-of-12 shooting, including 1 of 8 on 3-pointers. But in the fourth quarter, he was 4 of 5, including 2 of 3 from beyond the arc.
Down 94-88, Golden State took control with a 13-0 run — capped by Curry’s 3-pointer that put the Warriors up 101-94 with 5:46 remaining. Richaun Holmes’ tip-in cut the lead to 101-98 with 4:58 left. But Curry responded with another 3 and Golden State pulled away from there.
Phoenix shot out to a 26-9 lead but the Warriors cut it to 31-26 after one quarter.
Green’s driving layup capped a 13-3 Golden State run that put the Warriors up 60-51 before Oubre’s tip-in sliced the Warriors’ lead to 60-53 at the break.
Phoenix opened the second half with an 11-4 spurt to tie it at 64-64 and it stayed tight the rest of the third quarter. Oubre made one free throw with 4.9 seconds left, missed the second and grabbed the rebound for a dunk that put the Suns up 85-82 entering the final quarter.
In Los Angeles, Anthony Davis scored 32 points to turn jeers to cheers on Friday, leading the New Orleans Pelicans to a 122-117 NBA victory over Minnesota in his first game since asking to be traded.
The Pelicans didn’t ship out their superstar by Thursday’s trade deadline, and with the finger injury that had sidelined him healed he was back in the Pelicans starting lineup.
Boos from the home fans greeted his pre-game introduction, and continued whenever he touched the ball in the early going.
Davis shook off the awkwardness, scoring 10 quick points and finishing the first half with 24. He grabbed nine rebounds and blocked three shots in 25 minutes on the court.
“It just feels good to be back on the floor playing the game that I love,’’ Davis said. “I’m going to be here the rest of the year. My job is to play basketball and that’s all I want to do.’’
He sat out the entire fourth quarter as the Timberwolves made a late push, closing the gap to 114-112 on a dunk from Karl-Anthony Towns with 39 seconds left.
Towns finished with 32 points for Minnesota, but Jrue Holiday, Kenrich Williams and Julius Randle got the job done in the waning seconds.
Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry said the decision not to send Davis back into the game when things got close was to do with his lack of recent playing time.
“I was not going have him, first game back, play 38-40 minutes,’’ Gentry said. “That’s why he didn’t go back in the game.’’ (With AFP report)