Curry’s 3-pointer wins it at end; Green has last word vs. nemesis
The sellout crowd inside Chase Center roared. Stephen Curry crouched and flexed. Joe Lacob pumped his fists and cheered.
Draymond Green smiled in satisfaction.
“I knew his goal was to get me out of the game,” Green said in reference to Phoenix Suns center Jusuf Nurkic. “No one wants to see in me in the game. That makes the game a lot tougher.
“But it’d take a pretty good ‘ish’ talker to get me to do that. That’s just too obvious. It’s OK. It was a fun game.”
For Green more so than Nurkic.
Curry ensured the Golden State Warriors (25-25) would win it, sinking a 32footer with 0.7 of a second left and strutting to center court where the owner was sitting — until he was standing in celebration.
His team’s 113-112 win is its sixth in seven games, evening its record with a .500 winning percentage for the first time since Christmas as Valentine’s Day looms. Curry finished with 30 points, nine 3pointers, nine rebounds and six assists. Green added 15 points, seven rebounds, nine assists — and an enthused response in the aftermath for Nurkic, who complained about him in the visiting locker room to the Arizona Republic.
Lest we forget that Green struck Nurkic the last time they played, triggering an indefinite suspension levied by the NBA.
“It’s sad. He didn’t learn anything, man. Just a matter of time,” said Nurkic, who had six points in defeat. “He’s going to knock somebody else again. I take everything back I ever said. He don’t deserve a chance.”
Go figure they would match for almost 30 minutes Saturday with Green centering Golden State’s small-ball lineup opposite Phoenix’s 7-footer. They jostled under the basket and jockeyed for positioning in ways Nurkic would apparently take exception to. When Nurkic scored over Green on the inside in the third quarter, he passionately lowered his hand toward the court and smacked it as if to say “too small”.
Green retorted shortly thereafter with a low-post basket and similar — if not more spirited — celebration.
“He tried to get in my head, and it didn’t work,” said Green. “If he want to me walk around, quiet, I’m never going to do it. Quiet guys don’t win. I thought I was pretty great tonight.”
Curry too believed that Green penetrated Nurkic’s psyche: “In his head — plain and simple.”
Added Curry on Green: “This is probably the best game that you’ve seen it where he’s loud and fiery and competitive and he’ll jaw back and forth. But we’re playing basketball, and if you didn’t see that tonight, then you ain’t watching the game.”
Green was assessed his first technical foul — pleading for a foul call — since he returned to the lineup Jan. 15. Not that it bothered Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, who was satisfied with the two-way play that has invigorated Golden State’s season.
“We need him competitive. … If he’s passive, we might as well not play him. Everything with him is about his force and his energy and his competitiveness,” Kerr said, noting how it informs “the great player” that he is. “We do want him to walk the line but we just don’t want him to be passive at all. A technical, I’m fine with. A flagrant foul, fine. But he’s got to stop right there. And that’s what he did tonight.”
While Green and Nurkic banged under the basket, Curry and Suns superstar scorers Kevin Durant and Devin Booker filled it — playing all 48 minutes within seven points. Durant supplied 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for Phoenix (31-22) — ceding the crunch-time offense to Booker, who scored 12 of his 32 in the final 3:50.
His turnaround 18-footer with 35.1 seconds to play was erased by Curry two possessions later, thanks in part to Brandin Podziemski.
Tasked with the inbound pass with 3.1 seconds to play, the rookie guard passed the ball past the outstretched arms of Suns guard Bradley Beal as he lurched for a steal he couldn’t secure. Curry secured the pass and pirouetted into the game-winner. Even Durant unsheathed his smile.
Said Durant of Curry to a pool of reporters: “The greatest of all-time at his position. Top five ever. You give him a look like that for the game, he’s licking his chops.”
Green gave Durant an earful after one more stop as the former Warriors great walked off the court. Then one more for Nurkic at the postgame podium, bejeweled glasses framing his face and accentuating his smile.
“He can keep riding that some horse that he rode in on, he can ride his ass out of here on this same horse,” Green said, adding an apology to NBA commissioner Adam Silver. “It ain’t working.” Jonathan Kuminga scored 21 for the Warriors, who got 11 points and 14 minutes from Gary Payton II in his return from an injury.