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Warriors Hold Off the Jazz

Established 1946 | 7-time NBA Champions

The Warriors held off a resilient Jazz team, picking up their second win in as many nights with Thursday’s 106-99 win in Salt Lake City.

GAME LEADERS

After dominating the action early and leading by as many as 25 points, the Warriors showed signs of fatigue and allowed the undermanned Jazz back into the game. Utah, playing without four regular starters, chipped away throughout the third and fourth periods and made a game of it.

Fortunately for the Warriors, Kevin Durant had an answer. He scored 11 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter and Ian Clark chipped in with some clutch 3-point shooting as the Dubs picked up their eighth straight road win.

After Utah’s Joe Ingles hit a 3-pointer to make it a five-point game with 8:51 left in the final quarter, Durant responded. He made all three 3-pointers after being fouled on a 3-point attempt. He then ended the team’s three-and-a-half minute field goal drought with a dunk. Durant made eight straight Warriors points, and Ian Clark soon followed with a pair of 3-pointers to help secure the win.

Although the game went down to the final minutes, it didn’t seem that would be the case in the early going. After the Jazz scored the first four points of the game, the Dubs took control with a 29-1 run and never looked back. After going 0-for-8 the night before in a win over the Clippers, Stephen Curry hit his first two 3-point attempts during the game-changing run. He had 14 of his game-high 26 points in the opening period, including a pair of 3-point plays the hard way.

The Dubs took an 18-point lead into the first quarter break, and the second quarter saw some more splash from the Dubs. All 12 of Draymond Green’s first half points came via 3-pointers, and rookie Patrick McCaw provided a spark with a few 3-pointers of his own. McCaw had a career-high 10 points by the intermission, giving the Dubs some much needed energy in a second quarter in which the Warriors as a team took their foot off the gas.

Utah got back in the game with a 12-0 run in the third quarter that temporarily got them to within single digits, and the Dubs were dealt another blow when Green went back to the locker room with an injury to his left ankle, but thankfully it was deemed just a tweak and he was able to return to the game midway through the fourth quarter.

With Green back on the court and Durant and Clark each taking turns as the game’s closer, the Warriors stretched their lead back to double digits and the Warriors notched their second victory of this stretch of four games in five nights. With the victory, the Dubs become the first team in the NBA to reach 20 wins (20-3), and they’ll go for number 21 on Saturday when the road trip continues in Memphis.