Over the years, the Golden State Warriors have been extra depending on Stephen Curry than the entire “Strength in Numbers” mantra would counsel. Even throughout the Kevin Durant tremendous years, there have been two decidedly totally different Warriors groups: With and with out Curry.
Well, they are going to be with out Curry for these subsequent few weeks, and so they haven’t got a number of room for error as they battle not simply to rise above the play-in line in a jam-packed Western Conference however to not fall into the lottery, which is an precise risk.
In their first full sport with out Curry, since he went down with a left knee damage, the Warriors caught fireplace from 3 and seemed about pretty much as good as they’ve all season in a 141-114 win over the visiting Thunder. This after the Warriors completed off a win over Dallas within the sport by which Curry was injured.
It continues with a pleasantly stunning theme this season: Golden State has been OK with out Curry. It has gone 8-8 total within the 16 video games he is missed and 7-2 within the final 9.
On Monday, Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson led the way in which because the Warriors linked on 26 3-pointers, only one off the franchise document. Thompson accounted for 12 by himself, two off his single-game NBA document of 14. He wanted simply 16 makes an attempt. A 75-percent clip. Not dangerous.
It’s the ninth time in Thompson’s profession that he is made at the very least 10 3s in a sport, which might even be an NBA document if not for Curry, who has carried out it 22 instances. Curry and Thompson are the one gamers in historical past which have recorded a number of video games with at the very least 12 3-pointers (they’ve every carried out it twice).
Thompson’s craziest stat of the evening? He did not try a single free throw. His 42 factors are probably the most within the league this season with no free throw, topping Donovan Mitchell’s 38 towards the Knicks in October.
That’s not a stat the Warriors will likely be happy with, as spectacular as it’s to do this a lot injury on leap photographs. No group within the league makes an attempt fewer free throws than the Warriors, who tried simply seven on Monday, and even a few of these had been in rubbish time.
Thompson has by no means been a giant free-throw man. He hardly will get to the rim and even into the lane. Frankly, I’m undecided you need him dribbling greater than needed. Still, it is a robust hill to climb for the Warriors, who not solely shoot the fewest free throws however quit probably the most on the opposite finish.
It’s not prone to change. They simply must make a number of photographs to beat the discrepancy.
But again to the positives: Poole was magnificent. For one evening, he was completely Steph-like. He killed the Thunder as a creator, registering a career-high 12 assists. This dash and kick to Thompson was a murals:
Here Poole assaults the vacant aspect of the rim, forcing Josh Giddey to rotate over, earlier than dropping a bounce move to the subsequently vacated Andrew Wiggins for the gimme deuce.
Then, simply when it seemed prefer it is perhaps a comparatively quiet scoring evening for Poole, he began searching his personal shot, winding up with 5 3-pointers and 21 factors in a masterfully expert and affected person efficiency. That’s such a Curry factor. A quiet capturing evening turned nuclear within the blink of a watch.
Poole and Thompson aren’t going to play like this each evening, clearly. But if they’ll catch a scorching streak over this subsequent week and a half to buoy the Warriors heading into the All-Star break, man, what a elevate it could be with each being so necessary at this stage.
Next up is Portland on Wednesday.
