San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Without Green, Golden State relies on Curry
SALT LAKE CITY — Warriors head coach Steve Kerr yanked down his mask, turned toward referee Brent Haskill and shouted expletives.
The specific reason for the harsh language, which earned Kerr a technical and nearly got him ejected from Golden State’s 123-116 win over the Jazz at Vivint Arena on Saturday, was a no-call on an Otto Porter Jr. hook shot. Utah center Rudy Gobert appeared to hit the forward on the arm, but Kerr had plenty of other causes for concern during that nightmarish third quarter.
After seizing a 16-point lead less than a minute into the third, the Warriors were outscored 41-20 the rest of
the quarter to stare down a 91-86 deficit. Stephen Curry has an uncanny ability, however, to change the momentum with a few flicks of the wrist. His 30footer midway through the fourth quarter knotted the game at 101-101.
After Porter made a 12-foot step-back jumper to give the Warriors a five-point lead with 3:50 left, the Jazz got a driving layup from Donovan Mitchell and a 3-pointer from Bojan Bogdanovic to knot the game at 111-111, only for Curry to hit the biggest shot of the night. Twenty-nine seconds removed from sinking a pull-up jumper, Curry drained a 3-pointer with 1:26 remaining.
As he ran back on defense, he stared at the Warriors’ basket and kept his shooting hand raised. Moments later, when forward Andre Iguodala made a 3-pointer to help ice the game, Curry popped out his mouth guard, found Iguodala at midcourt, crouched low and highfived his longtime friend.
In a Warriors season defined by a return to title contention, this was worth celebrating. Golden State had come to the brink of a second-half implosion before stringing together stops and hitting shots when it mattered most. Making the victory even more notable was that, in outlasting a healthy Jazz team in a raucous environment, the Warriors overcame forward Draymond Green’s absence.
“That lead we had at halftime forced them to really get after it in that third quarter, and they did,” Kerr said. “But I thought we had more energy in that fourth quarter as a result.”
It was perhaps Golden State’s most encouraging win this season outside of its Christmas Day victory over the Suns. In beating that loaded Phoenix team on a national stage, the Warriors had managed to do so without Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole.
But as important as Wiggins and Poole are to Golden State, Green is even more vital. His knack for anchoring a topranked defense and finding an open Curry is a driving force behind the Warriors’ NBA-best record. Perhaps it was no big surprise, then, that Golden State looked out of sorts on both ends without Green in Tuesday’s 89-86 loss to the Nuggets.
Though the Warriors had three days to prepare for the Jazz thanks to Thursday’s game in Denver getting postponed because of a coronavirus outbreak among the Nuggets, Green had yet to get cleared from health and safety protocols Saturday. The good news for the Warriors was that they still had Curry.
As he stepped to the foul line with 23.1 seconds left and Golden State up five, boos mixed with an “M-V-P!” chant from a capacity crowd. Even with the home team about to squander a big opportunity against perhaps its biggest Western Conference threat, plenty on hand wanted to recognize Curry’s greatness.
“They’re big wins, man,” Wiggins said of the recent victories over the two teams directly behind the Warriors in the Western Conference standings: Phoenix and Utah. “It just shows that we’re at the top for a reason . ... We have a deep team.”
After shooting 5-for-14 from the field through the first three quarters, Curry went 3-for-4 over the final 12 minutes to pair his nine assists and six rebounds with a game-high 28 points. Wiggins added 25 points, and Porter chipped in 20 points, seven rebounds and a careerhigh-tying eight assists.
But as deep as the Warriors looked Saturday, they only figure to get deeper. Green could return as soon as Monday’s game against Miami at Chase Center. Guard Klay Thompson, who recently started scrimmaging with the starters, is expected back later this month after 2½ years sidelined by injuries. Asked whether he daydreams about Thompson’s return, Curry said, “All the time . ... There’s a lot of options with what we can do.”