SAN FRANCISCO – For most of the night, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Warriors traded shots, but it was the scoring prowess of Stephen Curry that guided Golden State to a 106-101 victory over the Cavaliers Friday night in front of a raucous crowd at Chase Center.
With the win, the Warriors improve to 5-1 at home this year. Curry hit a tying 3-pointer with 1:18 left in the game, then the go-ahead layup from a long pass from Kevon Looney, followed by another backbreaking 3-pointer on his way to a game-high 40 points. The reigning NBA Finals MVP shot a 15-of-23 from the field. He also finished with five assists.
Curry extended his NBA record to 200 straight regular-season games making at least one 3-pointer after nailing 6-of-11 from 3-point land. The streak began on Dec. 1, 2018, in Detroit.
“He’s just amazing night after night. He’s in such great shape,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “If there’s one area that he’s dramatically better now than when I first got here eight years ago it’s just his strength and conditioning.
He’s much bigger and stronger, much more capable of defending at a really high level and sustaining two-way basketball for an entire game and just knocking down shots from all over and finishing at the rim. He’s unbelievable.”
Andrew Wiggins finished with 20 points and six rebounds for Golden State, who improved to 5-7 on the season. The Warriors bench outscored Cleveland’s bench 28-13 led by Jordan Poole’s 18 points and Anthony Lamb’s 10.
Draymond Green finished with 13 of the team’s 29 assists. Green, who also finished with a team-high 10 rebounds, received a technical foul shortly before halftime. Kerr was also hit with a technical before intermission.
Klay Thompson scored just nine points on 3-of-13 shooting from the field, including 2-of-7 on 3-pointers. Overall, Golden State shot 48-percent from the field (40-of-62) and 42-percent on 3-pointers (15-of-36).
The Warriors have won 11 straight games over the Cavs, their longest active streak against any opponent. Cleveland hasn’t beaten Golden State in the regular season since a 109-108 victory on Dec. 25, 2016. If you include playoff victories, the Warriors won 19 of the last 20 against the professional basketball team from northeast Ohio.
Cleveland had five players finish in double-figures led by 29 points from Donovan Mitchell.
The former Utah Jazz star, who was acquired by the Cavs in a blockbuster trade in the offseason, added 10 rebounds and nine assists for Cleveland (8-4), who have now lost three games in a row following an 8-1 start to the season.
Evan Mobley finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds. The Cavs won the rebounding edge 46-44 over Golden State and outscored the Warriors 52-42 in the paint.
“They break you down and they break your back with points in the paint,” said Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff. “As long as they’ve been on this run, I know there’s this huge fear of the 3-point shot but they kill you with layups.”
Darius Garland added 15 points and eight assists but shot 5-of-19 from the field.
Jarrett Allen had 13 points and nine rebounds.
“I feel like we had a great game plan going up until the last three minutes, we didn’t execute it the way we wanted to,” Cleveland’s Caris Levert said. “When you’re playing the Warriors, you want other guys to beat you but I think Steph had eight, nine points down the stretch in the last in the last 2/3 minutes. So we obviously can’t let that happen.”
Golden State will travel to Sacramento on Sunday to take on the Kings for the second time in seven days. The Warriors have won seven straight games over the Kings, most recently a 116-113 victory this past Monday behind 47 points, eight rebounds and eight assists from Curry that snapped a five-game skid for Golden State.
Photo by Warriors/Twitter
