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Warriors Pound Pacers

The Warriors completed an undefeated four-game road trip on Monday night after earning a 120-83 win over the Indiana Pacers. Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry scored 25 and 22 points apiece, while the Warriors tied a franchise record, tallying their eighth-straight game with 30-or-more assists. With the victory, Golden State improves to 11-2 on the season and extends their winning streak to eight games, the longest in the NBA this season.

GAME LEADERS

Jeff Teague opened the scoring with a jumper 58 seconds into the game, giving Indiana what would turn out to be their only lead of the night. Klay Thompson responded with back-to-back three-pointers to give the Warriors a 6-2 lead just over two minutes into the contest, and that alone would outscore Indiana until Rodney Stuckey’s jumper pulled the Pacers within 13-7 with 6:01 left in the first quarter. Thompson would respond with jumpers on Golden State’s next two possessions to increase both his total and their lead to 10, after which they’d add a single point to their advantage over the remainder of the frame to give the Warriors a 34-21 lead at the end of one. The Warriors, who came into the evening averaging a league-best 30.8 assists per game, totaled 10 assists on their 12 made field goals in the quarter.

Former Pacer David West extended the Warriors’ lead to 15 with a 17-foot jumper just over a minute into the second frame. That’s as large as the difference would get until Kevin Durant followed a Draymond Green tip-in with his first three-pointer of the night to put Golden State up 56-36 with 1:34 left in the half. Stuckey’s layup with two seconds left would trim a single point off that margin, as the Dubs went into halftime holding a 61-42 advantage. Golden State was stout on the defensive end, limiting Indiana to 30.8 percent shooting from the field in the quarter and 34.0 percent in the half.

Stephen Curry scored five points in the final 36 seconds of the first half, and after he did this, he carried that momentum into the third quarter:

After Thaddeus Young cut the deficit down to 78-52 with a jumper with 6:54 remaining in the frame, Curry would go on to score eight of Golden State’s next ten points. After Curry assisted on a three-pointer by Thompson, Andre Iguodala drained his second three-pointer of the quarter to give the Warriors their largest lead of the entire game up to that point at 98-65 with 2:29 left. Stuckey would score the final four points of the quarter, bumping his team-high total to 18 points while cutting Golden State’s lead to 100-71 heading into the fourth and final frame. While the Warriors had committed just one fewer turnover than the Pacers’ 10 through three quarters, Golden State had tripled Indiana’s assists, tallying 27 compared to the Pacers’ nine.

Steve Kerr emptied the bench to begin the fourth quarter, and the Warriors’ reserves didn’t just maintain their lead, but built upon it further. After Ian Clark made consecutive jumpers, David West dunked and completed a three-point play for a Warriors’ 7-0 run that put Golden State up 114-78 with 7:28 left to play. That dunk came off an assist from Shaun Livingston, the Warriors’ 31st and final assist of the night, as Golden State recorded their eighth-straight game with 30-or-more assists and tied a franchise record in the process. Looney split two free throws with 46 seconds left to close out the scoring and simultaneously provide Golden State with their largest lead of the entire night at 120-83.

Having completed their four-game road trip with an undefeated record, the Warriors will return home for six of their next seven games at Oracle arena, beginning on Wednesday against the Lakers ( Find Tickets).