The Warriors fell one assist shy of tying the franchise record with 46 helpers in their 133-112 road victory over the Orlando Magic on Friday night. Golden State got off to a great start with 41 points in the first quarter and 78 points at halftime, and rode that high-octane offense to their second-straight victory on their current season-long road trip. Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 27 points, while Kevin Durant wasn’t far behind with 25 points and seven assists. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green both posted double-doubles, scoring 23 and 12 points, respectively, in addition to 10 assists apiece. With the victory, Golden State improves to 17-6 on the season.
TEAM LEADERS
ASSISTS GALORE
Golden State came into Friday’s game leading the NBA with an average of 30.1 assists per game, but that number will only go up after the performance they put forth against the Magic. The Dubs notched at least 11 assists in each of the four quarters, finishing with 46 in the game. The 46 assists are the most by any team in the NBA in a game this season, and fall just one short of tying the franchise record of 47, set back on November 23, 2016 against the Lakers. The Warriors have now dished out at least 40 assists in a game five times since the beginning of the 2015-16 season. Prior to that they had not tallied 40 assists in a game since 1994.
FAST START
If the Dubs accrued a lot of assists, that means they were making a lot of baskets, and that was certainly the case on Friday. Golden State raced out to a 10-2 lead within the opening minutes, and would hold a 41-34 advantage at the end of the first quarter, over the course of which they shot a combined 75.0 percent from the field. It was the most points the Warriors had scored in an opening frame this season, and was the team’s seventh 40-point quarter of the 2017-18 campaign. They’d maintain their hot start into and through the second quarter, setting a season-high for points in a half with 78.
HEAVY HITTERS LEAD THE WAY
Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson combined for 75 points in the victory, and the latter two were particularly efficient. Durant made 10 of his 14 field goal attempts, while Thompson shot an astonishing 11-of-14 from the field, including 3-of-4 from three-point range. It was the second-straight game and eighth instance so far this season that Curry, Durant and Thompson all scored at least 20 points in the same game.
SUPPORTING CAST
It wasn’t just the big-time scorers, though. The Warriors got contributions from throughout the roster, particularly from Jordan Bell, who totaled a career-high 16 points in the victory. Omri Casspi also reached double figures off the bench, scoring 11 points on only five field goal attempts, while Patrick McCaw contributed eight points, two three-pointers and four assists.
CURRY ASCENDS 3-POINT LIST
Curry entered the game one three-pointer shy of tying Jason Kidd on the NBA’s all-time three-pointers list, and he wasted no time surpassing him. Curry knocked down a trey just over three minutes in the contest to tie Kidd, and passed him minutes later with the 1,989 three-pointer of his career to move up to eighth on the all-time list. Curry would add another three-pointer later in the first quarter, but that would be his last long range conversion in the contest, finishing 3-of-8 from beyond the arc in the game.
UP NEXT
Now one-third of the way through their season-long six-game road trip, the Warriors will make the short flight to Miami, where they’ll face the Heat for the second and final time this season on Sunday.