One of the most frustrating things about the Golden State Warriors and Stephen Curry is how only two or three minutes of good basketball from them turns an entire games around and finishes it. Frustrating to their opponents that is.
The Sacramento Kings were outplaying and outshooting the Warriors via a career night for Omri Casspi, hitting nine three pointers and finishing with 36 points. Curry wasn’t hitting anything the entire first half. Sorry, almost the entire first half. And then the final 3:16 happened, in which Curry scored 17 points. The sparked something for the Warriors who were in tilt mode, resulting in a 32-14 third quarter, and garbage time the rest of the way.
Curry finished with 23 points. The Warriors didn’t need more from him. They just needed that spark, and the rest was history. Klay Thompson led the way with 29 points and Draymond Green added 25 in another night in which he reminded everyone of a Charles Barkley like player, probably not as good offensively or on the boards, but a much better defender. And he’s only the third offensive option on the Warriors. Curry finished with a triple double, just flying under the radar.
And that’s the problem for anyone in this league against the Warriors. You simply can’t let your guard down for 48 minutes or more against them, and even then, it’s probably not going to be enough. Take the Cavaliers for example: They played like the book says against the Warriors. It came down to making shots, which they failed to do, and lost a close one on Christmas. The Kings lost their defensive poise (if they ever had any) at the end of the first half, and it carried on into their disastrous third quarter.
The Warriors improved to 29-1, 15-0 at home. It’s not even big news anymore that they’re currently beyond anything NBA records have seen or heard of. While the 2016 portion of the season promises to be more difficult for them at least going by the schedule, it’s well within the realm of possibilities that they don’t just break the Chicago Bulls record from the 1995-1996 season (72-10), they blow it to smithereens. Shooting nights like Casspi had will go down in his and the Kings history. The Warriors are making history on a much grander scale.