Curry steers Warriors past Nets in Durant’s absence
NEW YORK: Stephen Curry had season highs with 39 points and 11 rebounds, and Golden State Warriors held on after he fouled out to beat Brooklyn 118-111 on Sunday.
A night after erasing a 22-point half-time deficit in Philadelphia, the Warriors built a 22-point cushion after two quarters behind 22 points from Curry.
Playing without Kevin Durant, they led by 28 in the third quarter but the Nets cut it all the way to four after Curry picked up his sixth foul with three minutes remaining.
Klay Thompson then scored seven of his 23 points in the final two minutes.
“It was a good learning experience for him,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Curry. “I thought, obviously, he was brilliant in terms of his scoring and shotmaking. I thought his second half, he got a little wild.
“We had to withstand their run, and luckily we did with good execution in the last few minutes after Steph Curry went out.”
The Warriors improved to 13-4, matching Houston for the best record in the Western Conference with their ninth victory in 10 games, despite the absence of star forward Kevin Durant with a left ankle sprain.
Curry said trying to be aggressive with Durant out led to his 11th career fouling out in the NBA.
“You’d love to have those plays back, but I loved the aggressiveness I had on those possessions,” Curry said. “You don’t like to foul out, but it was kind of how I tried to bring that intensity the whole game.”
At Los Angeles, Lonzo Ball had his second career triple-double and Julius Randle scored 24 points in the Lakers’ 127-109 victory over the short-handed Denver Nuggets.
Ball had 11 points, a career-high 16 rebounds and 11 assists in the 20-year-old rookie’s first triple-double in front of his hometown fans at Staples Center.
Brook Lopez scored 21 points and Jordan Clarkson added 18 for the Lakers, who surged to a 24-point lead in the first half and easily won for just the second time in seven games.
“You should always play better in front of your fans, so I’m just trying to put on a good show for them and win at the same time,” Ball said.
Denver coach Mike Malone and top scorer Nikola Jokic were ejected in the second quarter after Malone stepped onto the court during play to argue a no-call on a play by Jokic around the basket.
Malone furiously confronted referee Rodney Mott, who swiftly ejected the coach and his best player when Jokic joined in the argument.
Forward Paul Millsap also left with a sprained wrist in the second quarter.