Behind Stephen Curry's 40 points, the Warriors improved to 20-0 on the season with a 116-99 road win over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday.
The Warriors moved to 20-0 on the season with a 116-99 road win over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night. Stephen Curry scored 28 of his game-high 40 points in the third quarter alone, already his sixth 40-point effort of the season. Klay Thompson notched 21 points, while Draymond Green stuffed the stat sheet with four points, 11 rebounds, nine assists and three blocks.
GAME LEADERS
On a night in which Stephen Curry ultimately stole the spotlight, it was Klay Thompson who got the Warriors off on the right foot. The other Splash Brother made his first three shots on his way to 15 points within the opening eight minutes, the last three of which put the Dubs up 28-13 with 4:36 left. However, thanks to some sloppy play resulting in four Warriors’ turnovers, the Hornets quickly responded with a 10-2 run. Festus Ezeli’s putback dunk with 36.8 seconds remaining closed the scoring in the frame and sent the game into the second quarter with the Warriors holding a 32-23 lead.
An alley-oop from Marreese Speights to James Michael McAdoo with 8:46 left in the second frame capped off a 11-3 Warriors’ run to open the quarter, giving Golden State their biggest lead of the game up to that point at 43-26. But, Warriors would make only two more field goals over the next five minutes, allowing Charlotte to creep back within single digits. Then, Golden State got back on track, thanks to Stephen Curry. Curry would either score or assist on five of the Warriors’ final six baskets of the quarter, including Klay Thompson’s layup in the final seconds to send Golden State into halftime with a 60-51 advantage.
Unfortunately for the Hornets, that was only the beginning of Curry’s dominance. The NBA’s leading scorer lived up to the title in the third quarter, putting on a display that had the Charlotte crowd on its’ feet. Klay Thompson scored the Dubs’ first points of the frame with a three-pointer, which turned out to be one of only two baskets scored by the Warriors in the quarter that came from someone other than Curry. After the two teams traded 9-0 runs to make the score 72-64 in favor of Golden State with 5:12 remaining, the reigning MVP took the game over. He scored all eight of the Warriors’ baskets in the remainder of the quarter, including five three-pointers, single-handedly outscoring Charlotte 21-8 over that span. In total, Curry would score 28 points in the third frame, giving the Warriors a 93-72 advantage to take into the fourth and final quarter.
Luke Walton pulled the starters at the beginning of the frame, and the Warriors’ bench continued to build upon their lead. The Dubs opened the quarter on a 6-0 run, and Andre Iguodala’s three-pointer with 8:48 left gave the Warriors their largest lead of the game at 105-79. From there, Charlotte would chip away at the deficit, but the damage had been done. James Michael McAdoo closed out the scoring with a dunk with 35.6 seconds remaining, as the Dubs coasted to a 116-99 victory and moved to 20-0 on the season. Next up, the Warriors will travel to Toronto to take on the Raptors on Saturday in the third game of their season-long seven-game road trip.