Curry answers every challenge
Whenever the current Warriors are compared to the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, Steve Kerr politely reminds everybody that the Warriors don’t have Michael Jordan, who single-handedly won eight to 10 games that the Bulls otherwise would have lost that season.
Chalk one of those types of games up for Stephen Curry.
Curry scored a team-high 25 points — many of them at opportune times — and had seven assists to one turnover in the Warriors’ 106-87 victory over Phoenix on Saturday night at Oracle Arena.
“You try to pick and choose your spots, but I’ve been extra-aggressive the past two nights — just trying to get some life going,” Curry said. “We got back into the game, and the rest is history with our defensive effort to seal this win.”
When the Suns jumped out to a 19-10 lead, Curry scored seven points in the first quarter’s final four minutes to trim the deficit to 28-23.
When Goran Dragic stretched Phoenix’s lead to double digits in the second quarter, Curry scored the Warriors’ next 10 points to get his team within 47-42. He then found Draymond Green for a three-pointer that put the Warriors up 52-49.
When the Suns cut the Warriors’ lead to 61-59 in the third quarter, Curry hit a jumper, found Andrew Bogut with an alley-oop assist and hit Leandro Barbosa for a layup on a fascinating sequence that put the Warriors ahead 6961 with 2:25 to play.
Kerr tried to get Curry some rest in the fourth quarter, but when Phoenix got within seven points, Curry re-entered the game with 7:26 to play. One minute, 14 seconds later, the Warriors were up by 12 points and well on their way to ending a twogame losing streak.
It was the kind of MVP performance needed by the Warriors (37-8), who had lost two in a row for the first time in more than a month and had fallen out of the league’s top spot for the first time since Dec. 2. The Warriors haven’t lost three in a row since Nov. 2023, 2013 — the team’s only three-game skid last season.
The Warriors have beaten Phoenix (28-21) six straight times at Oracle Arena, but they’ve lost 16 of the past 19 in the desert, including a 107-95 loss Nov. 9 in the first of the teams’ four meetings this season.
Klay Thompson added 22 points, and Barbosa (14 points), Harrison Barnes (13 points, eight rebounds) and Andre Iguodala (12 points) were also in double digits for the Warriors. On top of his offensive heroics, Curry played the defense at the point of attack that got the team untracked on that end of the floor.
After giving up at least 110 points in four of their past five games, the Warriors limited Phoenix to 36.3 percent shooting and held the Suns 20 points below their season scoring average. The Suns’ dynamic backcourt of Dragic, Eric Bledsoe and Isaiah Thomas shot a combined 13-of-39.
“Our guys just really did a good job of staying at home on three-point shooters, closing out when they did get openings and making everything difficult,” Kerr said. “It wasn’t pretty offensively, but I’m confident the offense will follow now that we’re back defensively.”
If not, they just give the ball to Curry.
“I’ve been extra-aggressive the past two nights — just trying to get some life going.” Stephen Curry