Curry, Durant rounding into form
Midway through the third quarter Friday night, Kevin Durant stopped 4 feet behind the three-point arc. The fourtime NBA scoring champion corralled a pass from Stephen Curry, hoisted his shot before his defender could recover and sent a capacity Oracle Arena crowd of 19,596 into an uproar.
Durant, straight-faced, started running back on defense as the Trail Blazers — down 15 points to a team stocked with All-Stars — called for time to stop the bleeding. It was a sequence that, for any other franchise, might have been the highlight of the game.
But this is Golden State, a group that makes the extraordinary look routine. The Warriors’ 107-96 preseason win Friday over Portland underscored just how transcendent they are when their two NBA MVPs find a steady rhythm with one another.
Durant and Curry worked off screens, found open looks and combined for 63 points on 23of-42 shooting (13 of 21 from three-point range) as Golden State finished its preseason at 6-1. It hardly mattered that the Blazers, one of the few teams in the league that gave Golden State problems last season, ratcheted up the intensity and received solid performances from their backcourt duo of Damian Lillard (20 points) and CJ McCollum (16).
Even with Klay Thompson and Draymond Green laboring through off shooting nights, the Warriors used a 31-11 run out of halftime to create plenty of distance. Durant needed only seven shots in the third quarter to pour in 14 of his 28 points. Curry had 28 of his game-high 35 points by halftime.
“They’re trying to find chemistry with each other, and that’s what the preseason is all about,” said guard Ian Clark, who chipped in 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting off the bench. “Those two guys can be great for us.”
The Warriors opened 1-of-6 from the field, paving the way for the Blazers to seize an early 22-6 lead. But big deficits are no major concern for perhaps the most dynamic team in NBA history. A 14-1 rally trimmed Golden State’s deficit to two points with 2:39 left in the first quarter.
Early in the preseason, Curry had a tough time adjusting to his new running mate. The three-time All-Star, preferring to let Durant get comfortable in the Warriors’ free-flowing system, didn’t attempt more than eight shots in each of their first three exhibitions.
Over the past week, Curry has learned how to find his looks without infringing on Durant’s ball-dominant playing style. Golden State’s 123-112 win Wednesday over the Lakers in San Diego, when the pair totaled 59 points on 21-of-38 shooting, was an appetizer to Friday’s feast.
“We’re just doing it with different personnel this year,” Curry said. “Everybody’s got to be ready. … It’s just understanding the process of what goes into it, mentally as much as physically.”
With four days until the Warriors’ regular-season opener against San Antonio, they are living up to their billing as perhaps the greatest collection of talent ever assembled. They won their final six preseason games, most of them with ease. What makes Golden State such a daunting matchup is that, at any given time, it has at least two players on the court who are probably better than anyone on the other team.
That much was glaring Friday, when Curry and Durant raised a critical question: How much better can they become together?
“All in all, things are coming together,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “We’re not there yet, but we probably shouldn’t be there yet because we’re only a few weeks into this thing.”