Curry scores a career-high 62 as Warriors dismantle Portland
Stephen Curry scored a career-high 62 points Sunday night to lead the Warriors to a 137-122 over the Portland Trail Blazers.
Curry played only 36 minutes. He had 24 points on eight three-pointers (in 16 attempts). He had an additional 18 points from the free throw line, in 19 attempts. The miss came near the end of the first quarter and ended his streak of consecutive free throws at 80.
Curry’s previous high for points was 54 against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden in 2013. The Warriors lost that game, but they won this won to even their record at 3-3 after an 0-2 start. They play again tonight against Sacramento.
Curry had 45 points through three quarters as the Warriors took a 14-point lead into the final period.
A Kelly Oubre Jr. 3-pointer gave the
Warriors a 20-point lead, their largest of the game, midway through the third quarter, but the Trail Blazers cut into the deficit.
Golden State, still with a firm lead, started the fourth quarter with Curry and Green on the bench. Eric Paschall, with 10 points in 14 minutes, along with Oubre ( 13 points) and Andrew Wiggins (10 points) helped support the Warriors’ leaders on both ends of court, while center James Wiseman (12 points, nine rebounds) had one of his strongest quarters of the season as a pick-androll partner with Curry and Green.
The ninth 30-point half of Curry’s career had the Warriors up 66- 54 lead at intermission. His final points of the half came on three free throws after drawing a foul on Trail Blazers center Jusuf Nurkic from beyond the arc.
Those free throws started a new streak of four- straight makes, after Curry snapped his previous streak of 80 in a row — a career-best and franchise-record — with a miss at the end of the first quarter
Meanwhile, the Warriors’ defense held Portland’s backcourt of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum to a combined 25 points on 8-of20 shooting after the duo dominated in Friday’s loss to open this two-game series at Chase Center. Overall, they held the Trail Blazers to 39.1% shooting and 25% from 3-point range.
Forward D raymond Green, playing in his second game this season after missing the first four because of a foot injury, was a factor in the ramped up defensive effort.
THE WISEMAN >> Kerr is trying to manage the growing expectations for James Wiseman. T he 19- yearold rookie came into Sunday’s game averaging 11.6 points, 5.6 rebounds and 1.6 blocks. That was in 22.6 minutes per game, less than half of a full NBA game.
“Everybody can see that he’s a very talented young man,” Portland coach Terry Stotts said. “He’s going to be a very good player in this league for a long time.”
Sunday marked Wiseman’s sixth game in the NBA. More striking, it was just his ninth game since leaving college in November 2019. Add to that there was no Summer League and Wiseman missed training camp and all three preseason exhibitions because of a positive coronavirus test.
While the 7-footer has flashed remarkable skills — such as making 3-pointers with ease or dribbling down the length of the court to finish with Spor tsCenter-wor thy dunks — he’s often caught out of position on defense and is slow to react to opposing offenses.
“The speed of the game is the whole issue for every rookie, and even more so for big guys,” Kerr said. “I’m going to keep reminding people that James is so young, so raw and is seeing all this stuff for the first time.
“There’s just a process that every rookie has to go through and ultimately the game does slow down,” Kerr said. “It’s just a matter of when that is, but you can’t rush it.”