Steph Curry outduels Giannis in win – NBC Sports Bay Area & California
SAN FRANCISCO – Returning from a frustrating road loss to the Clippers in LA, the Warriors on Wednesday night began an eight-game homestand that can define their season, less than a month away from the NBA trade deadline.
The start of a two-week stretch at Chase Center was picture-perfect for the Warriors in a 120-113 win against the Milwaukee Bucks.
It took the Warriors going 5 of 10 on threes in the fourth quarter of their loss to the Clippers to get to 24.4 percent for the game. Shooting wasn’t such a problem playing the Bucks, as Golden State shot 48.9 percent from the field and 38.3 percent from three with 18 makes.
Steph Curry led the Warriors with 31 points, six rebounds and seven assists. De’Anthony Melton (22 points) and Jimmy Butler (21 points) gave the Warriors three 20-point scorers on a night where five players scored in double figures.
The Warriors continued to improve their ball security and had just nine turnovers one game after giving up seven. As the ball hummed, six Warriors had multiple assists, which was twice as many that had multiple turnovers.
Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo was an unstoppable force, finishing with 34 points, 10 rebounds and five assists.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ win that pushes them to 20-18:
The Others Step Up
What a difference it makes when the Warriors actually make shots. There have been flaws and cracks in the defense, but shotmaking has become a season-long problem nearly at the halfway mark. The Warriors entered their 38th game ranked 27th in field goal percentage and 15th in 3-point percentage for the 20th-ranked offensive rating in the NBA.
They resembled a much better product than those numbers back in front of their home fans.
The biggest positive was the “other guys.” In this case, we’re talking about players not named Curry or Butler. Those two combined to score 51 points Monday in LA, which was half of the team’s total, while the rest of the starting five scored 15 points with a 17.6 shooting percentage and went 1 for 11 on threes. In the first quarter alone, the other three starters – Draymond Green, Moses Moody and Quinten Post – scored 14 points.
That number rose to 25 points by halftime. The final total between those three was 34 points. But they weren’t alone. Melton scored 20 points for the first time since Dec. 27, 2023 and the Warriors won the bench battle 34-24.
Red-Hot Curry
Efficiency was Curry’s only problem in the Warriors’ previous game. While he led both teams with 27 points, Curry did so on 9-of-23 shooting (39.1 percent) and 4 of 15 on threes (26.7 percent). He cleaned that mess two days later.
Curry was slicing and dicing the Bucks’ defense without breaking a sweat. He made it look easy and still found ways to get fans out of their seats. As the Warriors held an 11-point halftime lead, Curry was a plus-21 and the second-highest among the starting five was Moody at plus-5.
He just kept cooking in the second half, too. Curry had his latest third-quarter flurry of 13 points on 5-of-7 shooting. He could have pulled out his Night Night celebration with his stepback jumper that sealed the deal with 26 seconds remaining.
Curry finished the night 12-of-21 shooting (9 of 12 on 2-pointers and 3 of 9 on 3-pointers).
On a night where Curry did a bit of everything, the stat that he might be proudest of is one. Curry’s only turnover came with 15 seconds left when he lost the ball out of bounds.
Horford’s Huge Impact
As he read the direction of Melton’s 3-point attempt in the final minute-plus of the second quarter, Al Horford crashed to the middle of the paint, grabbed the miss and found Melton in the left corner for an open three that went through this time. Horford’s rebound already was eighth of the game and third on the offensive glass.
Nobody was better for the Warriors than Horford in the second quarter. The Warriors and Bucks were tied at 31 points after the first quarter. But the Warriors then went on an 11-0 run in the final two minutes of the first half prior to the Bucks making a 3-pointer in the final few seconds. Horford in that span had three points, three rebounds and an assist.
He played six and a half minutes in the second quarter and was a plus-14 with six points on two 3-pointers, six rebounds and three assists.
Horford inhaled a season-high 10 rebounds. The veteran center also made two threes and connected the game on both sides. Getting these versions of him and Melton consistently can be game-changing for Golden State.
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