The Warriors won their eighth-consecutive game to begin the 2015-16 season, earning a 109-95 victory over the visiting Detroit Pistons on Monday night.
GAME LEADERS
The Warriors won their eighth-consecutive game to begin the 2015-16 season, earning a 109-95 victory over the visiting Detroit Pistons on Monday night. Klay Thompson scored a game-high 24 points, while Stephen Curry added 22 points and five assists of his own. Five Warriors scored in double-digits, while Andrew Bogut notched eight points and nine rebounds off the bench in his first game back from injury. The Dubs now head out on the road for a set of two games in two nights, beginning on Wednesday in Memphis.
With Detroit playing their second game in as many nights, it behooved the Warriors to get out to a fast start, and that they did. After Andre Drummond made the first basket of the game, Golden State went on a 12-2 run to generate an eight-point lead less than four minutes into the game. It wasn’t apparent at the time, but that Drummond bucket represented Detroit’s only lead of the entire game. The Pistons would cut the deficit to as few as four points midway through the quarter, but a 7-0 Warriors’ run to close out the opening frame sent the two sides into the second quarter with the Dubs holding a 27-15 advantage.
The Pistons wouldn’t go away easily, however, as the young upstart Detroit squad clawed their way back into the game in the second frame. Stanley Johnson’s driving layup began a 14-5 Pistons’ run to open the quarter, which cut the deficit to two points with 7:47 left in the first half. Stephen Curry immediately responded with his first three-pointer of the game, extending his regular season streak to 81 consecutive games with a trey. Detroit found themselves down four points with less than two minutes remaining in the half, but once again Golden State closed out the quarter on a run, sending the game into halftime with the Warriors leading 55-46.
The Warriors continued that momentum into the second half, where a sequence of back-to-back three-pointers from Curry and Thompson and two converted free throws from Festus Ezeli gave Golden State their largest lead of the game up to that point at 68-51 with 7:29 left in the third quarter. Again, however, the Pistons fought their way back into the game. Using successive 9-0 and 16-6 runs separated only by four Golden State free throws, Detroit cut the deficit significantly and gave themselves a fighting chance heading into the fourth and final quarter, trailing Golden State 80-76.
As the game wore on, however, the Pistons’ fatigue set in, and the Dubs used a fourth quarter spurt to put the game out of reach. Andre Iguodala’s fast break dunk began an 18-6 Warriors’ run, giving Golden State a 16-point lead with less than six minutes remaining in the game. The Warriors would stretch that lead to a game-high 18 points two minutes later, and at that point, the end result was no longer in question. After Detroit cut the deficit to 12, Klay Thompson responded with five consecutive points to seal the 109-95 victory for Golden State. The victory extends the Warriors’ best start in the franchise’s West Coast era to 8-0. They’ll look to keep the momentum going when they take on the Grizzlies in Memphis on Wednesday night.