After a Stephen Curry flurry sealed the team’s win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, it was Kelly Oubre Jr. and the Warriors’ bench that lifted the squad over the same Timberwolves team to win Wednesday’s game at Chase Center 123-111.
In a very un-Stephen-Curry-like start, the Dubs’ two-time MVP went scoreless until there were 8.7 seconds left in the second quarter. And yet the Warriors entered halftime up 58-51 thanks to early scoring from James Wiseman and Kent Bazemore and a career quarter from Oubre.
Bazemore entered the game early after Oubre sat with two quick fouls, and the veteran responded with seven points off the bench in the first quarter. “It’s all about staying ready,” he said at halftime. It was that preparation that served as a big momentum shift in a game where both teams struggled to make shots early, each starting the game 1-for-9 from the floor.
Wiseman also came off the bench for the second straight game and responded equally as strong with eight first quarter points, including consecutive 3-pointers, and finishing the first half with 14. But fueling the first half for the Warriors was Oubre: After coming back in the game following his early foul trouble, he went off for a career-high 16 points in the second quarter on a perfect shooting half while adding four rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block.
From there, it was all Warriors as the squad took their seven-point halftime lead and pushed it to as high as 25 through the third quarter, including 12 points from Curry en route to a 16 point night.
TEAM LEADERS
Bazemore’s early seven points were what he would finish with to go with three rebounds and two steals, while Oubre almost had himself a double-double with 20 points and nine rebounds. Wiseman had a career night with a new high of 25 points with six rebounds and two blocked shots.
After splitting their first two two-game, back-to-back series of the season against the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers, Wednesday completed the Warriors’ first sweep of such a set in the 2020-21 campaign. But the Warriors are right back at is as the squad hits the road to play the Suns on Thursday night in Phoenix (7 p.m., NBCSBA, TNT).
Honoring Kobe Bryant, One Year LaterWith Tuesday marking the one-year anniversary of the tragic helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Kobe and Gianna Bryant, along with seven others in Southern California, a trio of Warriors guards paid tribute to the Bryants with special sneaker designs. Stephen Curry, Kent Bazemore and Damion Lee all wore custom pairs of Under Armour’s Curry 8s depicting images of Kobe and Gianna Bryant, with Curry paying homage to the proud girl dad connection he shared with Kobe.
More Notables ...
- The Warriors improved to 10-8 overall, winning two straight for the fifth time this season.
- Golden State has won nine consecutive home games against the Timberwolves. The last time the Timberwolves won a road games against the Warriors was on April 5, 2016 (124-117 OT).
- Golden State improved to 5-0 when scoring 120-plus points and 8-0 when scoring 110-plus points.
- The Warriors’ reserves tallied a season high 60 points tonight vs. the Timberwolves (previous: 58 on 1/4 vs. SAC... Golden State is 3-0 this season when the bench scores 50-plus points.
- Golden State dished out 32 assists, its sixth game with 30-plus assists this season and they own a record of 5-1 in those games.
- The Warriors committed a season-high 21 turnovers (previous: 19, two times).
- Golden State’s 37 third-quarter points are the most it has scored in any third quarter this season (previous: 33, twice).
- The Warriors improved to 4-1 when recording 10-or-more steals (11 tonight).
- Golden State improved to 6-0 on the season when shooting 50 percent-or-better from the field (52.9 percent tonight).
- The Warriors improved to 8-1 when making more threes than their opponent (1-6 when getting outshot from three).
- James Wiseman and Anthony Edwards both scored 25 points off the bench tonight.... Since the NBA began tracking starters in 1970-71, this is the only time the No. 1 & 2 picks from the same draft have scored 25-plus points off the bench in the same game (Stats by STATS).
- James Wiseman tallied a career-high 25 points, his second outing of 20-plus points on the season (20 points on 1/20/21 vs. SAS)... His 25 points were also the most scored by a Warriors reserve this season... With two blocks tonight, marked his NBA-rookie best 11th multi-block outing of the season; Entering tonight, no other rookie had more than three multi-block games... He went 3-of-6 from three, tying a career high in makes.
- Kelly Oubre Jr.'s 16 second-quarter points marks a career high for points scored in any quarter (previous: 15 points scored in the second quarter as a member of the Suns on 2/5/20 at Detroit)... He finished with 20 points, his second outing of the season scoring 20-plus points... His nine defensive rebounds were a season high. Oubre Jr. made his first seven field goal attempts. Oubre Jr. has scored in double figures in seven of the last nine games, averaging 14.2 points per game in that span.
- Kevon Looney grabbed a season-high 10 rebounds in 11:48 of action in his second-straight start, his eighth- career game with 10-plus rebounds.
- Stephen Curry has now appeared in 717-career games, passing Jeff Mullins (716) for sole possession of third on the franchise’s all-time games played list. Curry, who did not score in the first half, finished with 16 points (6- 17 FG, 4-11 3P), six rebounds and a game-high-tying eight assists.
- Damion Lee recorded a season-high 17 points on a season-high tying four threes, while adding a career-high tying three steals.
- Brad Wanamaker dished out a season-best six assists, leading all reserves in the category. In the last 12 games, Wanamaker has dished out 36 assists while turning the ball over just seven times.