The Warriors avenged their most recent loss, stretching their current winning streak to nine games with a 149-106 victory over the Lakers on Wednesday. Stephen Curry led all scorers with 31 points while Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson added 28 and 26, respectively, as the Dubs scored an NBA season-high 80 points in the first half on their way to a runaway win. With the victory, Golden State improves to 13-2 on the season.
GAME LEADERS
When the Lakers dealt the Warriors their only road loss of the season back on November 4th, Golden State struggled mightily from three-point range, making only five of 32 attempts. On Wednesday night, riding an eight-game winning streak since that defeat, the Warriors had no such trouble from long distance, and shot their way to a ninth-consecutive victory.
Golden State made eight of their first eleven shots, including four from beyond the arc to build a double-digit lead midway through the opening quarter, and the Warriors never relinquished it from there. Two of those three-pointers came from Stephen Curry, who would add two more to his tally through the remainder of the quarter for a total of 15 in the first frame. The Dubs would go on to lead 41-26 at the end of the first quarter in which they converted six three-pointers, shot 65.2 percent from the field and combined for 13 assists. The only blemish on Golden State’s otherwise dominant offensive performance to open the game came at the free throw line, where the Warriors converted only five of 11 attempts as a team.
The Warriors troubles from the charity stripe persisted throughout the first half, but it didn’t matter at all, due to Golden State’s proficiency from the field. The Dubs nearly replicated their offensive explosion in the first quarter, taking and making one fewer shot for a total of 39 points in the second and 80 points at the half. It all added up to the highest-scoring half for any team in the NBA this season, and the vast majority of it could be attributed to the Warriors’ penchant for making the extra pass, as Golden State collected another 13 assists in the second quarter for a total of 26 at the half.
For reference, the Warriors came into the night as the only team in the league averaging at least 25 assists per game. Kevin Durant was a perfect 5-of-5 from the field for a total of 13 points in the frame, while Draymond Green - who had done just about everything but score - closed out the half with his first field goal of the night, a darting fast break dunk off a feed from Curry to put the Dubs up 80-49, their largest lead of the game up to that point going into halftime.
Curry found Durant and Thompson for back-to-back jumpers in a span of 27 seconds, the last of which put Golden State up 89-58 with 7:47 remaining in the quarter. That was the Warriors’ 30th assist of the game, marking the ninth-straight game Golden State has collected 30-or-more assists, establishing a new franchise record in the process. Just over a minute later, this time it would be Durant finding Curry for a three-pointer at the 6:11 mark that gave the Dubs their largest lead of the quarter at 96-62. Los Angeles would trim that down marginally through the remainder of the frame, as the Warriors carried a 106-78 lead into the fourth.
Los Angeles would cut the deficit to 20 points with an 8-0 burst over the first 80 seconds of the final quarter, but that’s as close as they’d get for the remainder of the night. Golden State immediately responded with a 9-0 run, eliminating whatever mystery remained surrounding the final outcome. The only element of the contest that was still in doubt was whether or not the Warriors would take their assist-happy night to an historic level, which they did indeed do with 55 seconds remaining in the game. Ian Clark found Anderson Varejao for a lay-in, giving Golden State a franchise record-setting 47th assist of the game, the most in an NBA game in 25 years. Varejao would add two more free throws in the final seconds to close out the scoring and give the Warriors their largest lead of the entire game at its conclusion by a final score of 149-106.
Golden State's 149 points and 43-point victory both establish new highs against the Lakers, topping marks that were set 50 years ago in November of 1966. With the victory, the Warriors improve to 13-2 on the season. Next, they’ll travel to Los Angeles to take on the very same Lakers for the second time in three days on Friday.