Steph Curry hit three layups, a corner 3 and a patented deep trey while completely taking over the game in Oklahoma City during a nuclear third quarter.
Curry, the 36-year-old supernova, poured in 17 of his 36 points in the third period. Curry made seven of his 10 field goals in the frame, including the pair of 3s. Behind his eruption, the Warriors turned a seven-point edge into a 20-point blowout in what became aa 127-116 victory.
Recording season-highs in points (36) and 3s (seven), Curry made the best defense in the league look pedestrian. Golden State ran up 79 points in the middle quarters combined, building an insurmountable cushion after Thunder center Chet Holmgren left the game with a right hip injury.
Curry and the Warriors’ third quarter was enough to hold off a resurgent Thunder effort in the final period. Oklahoma City nearly erased the Warriors’ 30-point lead with a furious defensive performance, but Curry delivered the requisite daggers to escape.
The Warriors’ win capped off an undeniably successful road trip. Golden State (8-2) finished the five-city, nine-night trip with a 4-1 record, including wins over the Celtics and Thunder.
“You always have to have perspective in this league,” Curry said in his on-court postgame interview with NBC Sports Bay Area. “Because it’s so hard to win. So if you get on the plane at SFO 10 days ago, you say, ‘We’ve got to go 4-1.’ We’ll take that all day…Our resiliency to bounce back (from the Cleveland loss) and play against a very tough OKC team in their building and get a win like this on the way home, it shows what we’re building.”
The most consequential play of the game happened halfway through the first quarter. Gary Payton II swung a pass to Andrew Wiggins in the corner, who pumped-and-drove to the rim, where he finished through Holmgren at the rim. Holmgren, the second-year star center, fell hard on his right side and couldn’t put any weight on his right leg as he got helped to the locker room.
Holmgren, who’s averaging 18.2 points, 9.2 rebounds and 2.9 blocks per game, didn’t return. The severity of his right hip injury could tip the balance of the Western Conference.
With Holmgren incapacitated, some of the Warriors paint touches that had been rimming out started to fall. The paint opened up, and so did second-chance opportunities. They took advantage of the absence of one of the game’s fiercest bigs.
The Thunder played minuscule lineups with Holmgren unavailable, and the Warriors often matched their size. Golden State went long stretches with Kyle Anderson as the functional center to counter Oklahoma City’s five-out style.
“It turned into a small game, that’s why (Kevon Looney) didn’t play, that’s why we leaned into our small lineups, and our guys did a great job,” Steve Kerr told reporters postgame.
Golden State hit three straight 3s to open the second quarter, and Jonathan Kuminga scored 10 points in his first six minutes. A Curry 3 on the wing midway through the second period gave the Warriors their first lead since the opening minutes.
Kuminga and De’Anthony Melton — in his first start of the season — keyed a 7-0 run and helped the Warriors take a 65-58 into halftime.
The Thunder, with Holmgren, posted the NBA’s best defensive rating by far entering Sunday. The Warriors countered by raining 3s; they went 13-for-26 in the first half.
Without Holmgren, the best defensive team in the NBA no longer looked elite. Golden State ripped off a 10-0 run to open the second half, going small to match Oklahoma City’s style.
Kuminga in particular took advantage of the Thunder’s lack of size. Perhaps the Warriors’ most consistent scorer since he got removed from the starting lineup, Kuminga (20 points in 26 minutes on 8-for-11 shooting) scored in double digits for a seventh straight game off the bench.
Curry’s microwave third quarter gave the Warriors a 17-point lead with a corner 3 over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander right after the Thunder superstar swatted his layup attempt.
Many analysts have leapfrogged Gilgeous-Alexander over Curry in debates over the best point guards in the NBA in recent years. Their head-to-head matchup told a different story.
Curry helped the Warriors score 42 points in the third quarter — a team-high for any quarter this season — and balloon their lead to an apex of 30.
Oklahoma City threatened with a 23-5 blitz to start the fourth quarter, but Curry’s flurry in the third made Golden State’s lead safe.
The Warriors’ offense went ice cold, scoring seven points in as many minutes. Cason Wallace got loose for a pair of 3s, and suddenly the Thunder crept within nine.
At the end of their long road trip, the Warriors needed to summon the energy to hold Oklahoma City off. Then Draymond Green committed a technical foul and Melton threw an inbounds pass away, slicing Golden State’s lead to six.
But Kuminga answered with an alley-oop, followed by a circus 3 from Curry. With 1:12 left, Melton picked up a steal and led a fast break that ended with Curry’s seventh 3 — and a Night-Night celebration.
This road trip was the Warriors’ first test of the season after a soft start to their schedule. They sandwiched a dud in Cleveland with by far their two most impressive wins of the season — at the TD Garden and Sunday night in Oklahoma City — no matter how tight it got at the end.
Golden State needed to hold off a Thunder storm to escape, and Curry gave them shelter.
“Hell of a trip,” Kerr said. “Great way to start the season out, winning eight of our first 10. Including a couple road wins against two of the best teams in the league. Feel like our team is in a good place, but obviously this is just the beginning of a long, long season. So we’ve got to keep working.”
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