Thompson leads potent backcourt attack

The Boston Celtics, holders of the NBA’s best record, invaded Chase Center on Saturday night for a prime-time showdown. Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and company were cast out by a three-headed backcourt attack of Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry and Jordan Poole in a 123107 Golden State Warriors win.

Playing without Andrew Wiggins (adductor strain) for the third straight game, the Warriors needed their remaining stars to show up in this rematch of June’s NBA Finals, which Golden State won in six games. Containing Tatum and Brown was a collective effort, led by Thompson and Draymond Green. Offensively, Golden State’s backcourt trio carried the load, as Thompson, Curry and Poole combined for 86 points.

“It was great to see everything connect at both ends, for (Klay) and for our team,” Curry said.

Thompson finished with a game-high 34 points on 14-for-26 shooting in 35 minutes. It was Thompson’s second game this season scoring at least 30 points. He had 24 points in the first half alone, and few of his attempts looked forced. Thompson has made a clear effort to slow down and let the game come to him, and his patient style of play is becoming a trend.

Thompson said Wednesday’s heartbreaking loss in Utah left a bad taste in his mouth, and he had to respond accordingly.

“That was a terrible experience,” he said. “To respond the way we did felt great. I mean, we’re able to flush that one, Salt Lake, after that collapse, so it’s always nice to respond with a great performance, and we did that tonight.

Curry, who finished with 32 points, six rebounds and seven assists, started 0-of-3 from the field but heated up quickly, hitting his next three shots, including a 3-pointer from the top of the key over Boston’s Sam Hauser to beat the first-quarter buzzer. He went 9-of-16 from the field and 4-of-8 from 3-point range the rest of the way. Curry’s eight points in the fourth quarter helped slam the door on the Celtics’ brief comeback attempt.

While Poole shot just 5-of-16 from the field, he had four assists, three rebounds and managed to control the game without shooting well. He got to the freethrow line more than any other player and went 9-for-10.

Golden State, which shot 51.1% from the field as a team, had 26 assists on 47 made shots and just 13 turnovers, improving to 14-13 and 12-2 at Chase Center this season.

“The crowd was excited, we were excited,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “I mean, just the feeling of going against the team that you just played in the NBA Finals, and especially with the way they’ve played this year, they’ve just been so good, so dominant. I thought we needed a game like that. We’ve been stuck in the mud a little bit and it feels like we’ve gotten better over the last few weeks, but not a whole lot to show for it. So this was an important win for us.”