San Francisco – The Warriors took care of business in their last regular season home game. They beat Oklahoma City Thunder 136-125. Stephen Curry scored 34 points and Jordan Poole added 30 points, he started in place of Klay Thompson who sat out tonight’s game with back tightness.
“Just right before our walk-through,” said Kerr.. Late. Totally unexpected. Just flared up.”
Steve Kerr went with a different lineup that saw Poole, Jonathan Kuminga and Anthony Lamb in the starting lineup. Draymond Green scored 17 points and had 9 rebounds. Kevon Looney grabbed 11 rebounds off the bench to help put OKC away after leading much of the game.
“Yeah, I mean he was so good in that last quarter and a half,” Kerr said. Just scoring, getting to the rim, decision making and it wasn’t like I told Steph (Stephen Curry) anything. We just made a couple of play calls where Jordan had the ball and something good happened and Steph being who he is, he just gave the ball to Jordan and said ‘you take it’ and he was hot and we were scoring every time, so we just stayed with JP and Steph was leading the charge on that front. So yeah, JP was amazing.”
The Warriors trailed by as many as 10 points and went on to win, marking the team’s 13th double-figure comeback (all 13 have occurred at home). The 13 comeback wins this season are the most since the Warriors had 13 in 2018-19. Golden State improved to 9-0 on the season when scoring 130-or-more points.
The Warriors grabbed 54 rebounds, improving to 12-4 this season when recording 50-or-more rebounds.
This was the third time this season Curry (34 points) and Poole (30 points) each scored at least 30 points in the same game (Warriors are 2-1 in those contests).
“Well, first I was on the bench the first three minutes he (Jordan Poole) hit a couple big shots,” Curry said on the OKC’s defense in the 4th. “And then, they’re a switching team except Lu (Luguentz) Dort on me and he was kind of glued to me no matter where I was. The only time he kind of came off was when he got hit with a screen.
So, if I set screens or got out the way usually there was going to be an imbalance on help side and stuff like that, and JP took advantage of it and made the right play. He attacked in transition. He attacked off pick-and-roll, got to the free throw line and a big part of our struggles, some fourth quarters is we’re not very intent, or we don’t have good intention with what we’re trying to do with every possession.”
Donte DiVincenzo tallied 16 points off the bench, his 31st game this season scoring in double figures; second straight game.
Moses Moody contributed 13 points off the bench, his 10th game this season scoring in double figures and highest scoring output since scoring a season-high 17 points on 12/21 at BKN. His 25:52 of action also marked the most minutes he has played since 12/21 at BKN (30:55).
“Been doing it all year since last year Mo, (Mosey Moody) and everybody off the bench stays ready they know things like tonight, said Gary Payton II. “Klay (Thompson) was supposed to, he didn’t go so those minutes are open and guys know it can go either way, you know you can play five to 15 (minutes) and Moses was ready, 25 minutes unexpectedly and you know he came out there did what he needed to make plays and helped us down the stretch.”
“It was good to get out there and get to play, run up and down the floor and knock down some shots, be in the moment,” Moses Moody said. “That is what I have been waiting and working for.”
Up Next: The Warriors travel to Sacramento to face the Kings on Friday, April 7 (7 p.m. PDT) in their penultimate regular-season contest, before playing the 82nd and final game of the 2022-23 regular-season campaign at Portland (12:30 p.m. PDT).
Photo by Warriors/Twitter
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Andrew Wiggins opens up to the media regarding his time away
San Francisco – Andrew Wiggins and General Manager Bob Myers addressed the media for the first time since his absence from the team after the NBA All-Star break. Wiggins missed 22 games to deal with a personal family issue. He’s returned to the team this week in hopes to play before the regular season ends.
Myers first thanked the media for keeping Wiggins personal matters private as in this line of business it’s hard to do especially when you have a public job. He also addresses that some media members knew what was going on and appreciated them not spilling the beans.
WARRIORS HEAD COACH STEVE KERR
ON SEEING ANDREW WIGGINS BACK AT CHASE CENTER:
“It was great to see Andrew today. You know, we’ve missed him for the last couple of months. Obviously, on the court, but just his presence in the locker room and the training room. He’s just got a very calming presence, in general. Everyone loves Andrew and just having him back is fantastic. So we’re all very happy that he’s here.”
ON IF HE WAS ABLE TO DO ANY COURT WORK TODAY:
“He got on the court with Jama (Mahlalela). He went through some work with Rick Celebrini (VP, Player Health and Performance) in the training room so they were able to kind of get a look at where he is and he got some shots up and I think he was on the bike so we’ll just take it day-by-day from here.”
ON POSSIBLE TIMELINE FOR ANDREW WIGGINS RETURN TO GAME ACTION:
“I don’t know. We’ll just kind of see. I think we’ll have a better idea in the next couple of days. What this means and when he would be able to play, and if so, you know how many minutes and all that stuff, but we haven’t even had those conversations yet.”
ON IF ANDREW WIGGINS COULD POTENTIALLY PLAY THIS WEEKEND:
“What day is it? Every day is Wednesday in the NBA. There is no way he’s playing in the next few days, I can tell you that, but I think, once we have an assessment over the next couple of days, we’ll have a better idea of when he might be able to play.”
ON ANDREW WIGGINS’ BEING IN CONTACT WITH THE TEAM ABOUT STAYING IN SHAPE:
“No, I mean we’ve been in contact with him the last couple of months and we offered to send someone out to work with them and he preferred just to work on his own which was fine and, so we weren’t monitoring him and his workouts we were giving him his space as everyone here knows. But he was working out on his own and now that he’s back, he’ll be with our group. Great to get him back with his teammates.”
ON THE TEAM’S PLAYOFF EXPECTATIONS:
“Well, we have to get into the postseason before we can have any expectations. So right now our focus is on tonight, playing against Oklahoma City. They’re a really good young team. Very important game for us. We’re right in the thick of everything in the playoff race, but we’re not home yet. So we will just keep focusing and taking it one day at a time.”
ON REACCLIMATING ANDREW WIGGINS BACK INTO THE ROTATION:
“We will have to do some adjusting, but it’s not rocket science, you know? I mean, we sit around a table and talk about what the rotations might look like and look at the rotation numbers, look at the combinations that we’ve been putting out there, which ones have been working well, which ones haven’t look at the ones with Andrew in them. And then try to figure out within the context of how much he might be able to play, where we can fit him in, and how best to fit them in. So all those are conversations, but there’s only so much you can talk about. It’s all part of what we do.”