Curry misses 1st 10 shots, then leads 2nd-half surge
Late in the third quarter Saturday night, Stephen Curry stepped to the foul line as an “M-V-P!” chant rained down from the rafters behind the Warriors’ basket. It was a curious sight: a capacity Oracle Arena crowd serenading a player who had clanged shots much of the game.
Curry poured in 22 of his team-high 27 points in the second half, including 14 in the third quarter, to propel the Warriors to a 110-95 win over New Orleans. On a night Golden State’s offense sputtered, Draymond Green was hampered by foul trouble and Kevin Durant sat out with a sprained left ankle, the Warriors held the Pelicans to 40.5 percent shooting.
“I never lose confidence,” Curry said. “It’s more just trying to settle down a little bit.”
Golden State created distance with a quick 8-0 spurt to open the third quarter. The Pelicans, also on the rough end of a back-to-back set, appeared to tire down the stretch as Golden State slowly pulled away for its 11th win in 13 games. By the time DeMarcus Cousins was assessed a technical foul with 1:43 left,
Warriors fans were filing toward the exits.
It had been far from pretty. Golden State finished 41.5 percent from the field, including 10-for-33 from threepoint range (30.3 percent), with 24 fouls. The Warriors washed away those warts by taking care of the ball well enough — they tallied 30 assists to only nine turnovers — to attempt 10 more shots than New Orleans.
“We did not shoot a good percentage,” said Klay Thompson, who chipped in 24 points. “But when we limit ourselves to nine turnovers, and we’re getting up a shot on almost every possession, it’s definitely in our favor.”
Midway through the second quarter, after getting whistled for his third foul, Green raised both arms in exasperation, shook his head and, while stomping toward the Warriors’ bench, muttered a few not-safe-for-work words under his breath.
His frustration pervaded the entire team. Less than 24 hours after pummeling the Bulls by 49 points, Golden State was down nine to a Pelicans team that eyes a playoff berth. Curry, who scored 26 of his 33 points in the second quarter Friday against Chicago, was well on his way to missing his first 10 shots. Durant, the eight-time All-Star who often lifts the Warriors out of such ruts, was watching the action from the home locker room.
It was enough adversity to upend many teams. Perhaps the deepest club in the league, the Warriors are uniquely equipped to steal victories even when seemingly little goes right.
Golden State missed wide-open jumpers, surrendered driving lanes and stared down a 14-point hole at the end of the first quarter. To score as many points in those 12 minutes as the NBA’s highest-scoring offense, New Orleans point guard Jrue Holiday needed only 10 shots. That 17-point first quarter marked the Warriors’ lowest-scoring quarter this season.
As Green and Cousins sat much of the second period with foul trouble, Golden State finally began to settle into an offensive groove.
Backup point guard Shaun Livingston caught the ball at the top of the key midway through the quarter, threw off Holiday with a juke move, dribbled twice into the paint and threw down a one-handed dunk. Little more than four minutes later, Curry’s 19-foot step-back jumper rolled around the rim three times before dropping in for his first field goal of the night. With 27 seconds left in the half, Thompson netted a three-pointer to give the Warriors their first lead of the game, 53-52.
Curry shot 5-for-9 from the field in the third quarter to help Golden State lead by as many as 16. It was the latest example that, for a player widely considered the best shooter in NBA history, the only antidote for a shooting slump is to keep shooting.
“It takes a special kind of confidence to do what Steph did tonight,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “Guys like Steph, MVP-caliber players, they find a way to turn a bad night into a good one.”