San Francisco – Chris Paul had 14 assists, Jonathan Kuminga played his best game of the season and Draymond Green had 12 rebounds. The Warriors bounced back from their loss to the New York Knicks on Monday night with a 137-116 win over the Memphis Grizzlies tonight at Chase Center.
Every game is important as Golden State’s only focus is a return to the playoffs. But to do that they must earn their spot in the play-in tournament. The Warriors improved to 18-18 at home, snapping a three-game home losing streak.
Kuminga tallied his 22nd game of 20-or-more points this season and has accomplished the feat in nine of the last 12 games. He’s averaging 21.3 points on 55.7% from the field and 41.7% from 3-point range, adding 4.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game during that span. He recorded a career-high tying 12 made field goals (three times) and had 26 points for the night.
With the score tied at 58-58 in the second quarter, Golden State went on a 22-0 run for an 80-58 lead with 9:46 left in the third quarter. The Warriors scored 40 points in the game’s third quarter, marking their 10th game logging a quarter of 40-or-more points this season. The Warriors made a season-high 58% of their shots from the field.
Klay Thompson contributed 23 points off the bench. It was his seventh 20-point game off the bench this season. Wiggins posted his third double-double of the season, and Paul recorded his fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and a season-high 14 assists. Tonight marked the 15th time of his career he’s recorded at least 14 assists and zero turnovers.
Stephen Curry made four 3-pointers, and recorded his NBA-record fifth season of 300-or-more threes, no other player has more than one (Klay Thompson and James Harden).
UP NEXT: The Warriors host the Pacers on Friday, March 22 at 7 p.m. PDT, in the final game of their three-game homestand. The team travels to Minneapolis to face the Timberwolves on Sunday, March 24 (4 p.m. PDT), in the first game of a five-game road trip.
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Warriors head coach Steve Kerr’s press conference:
ON THE STATUS OF DRAYMOND GREEN AND MOSES MOODY:
“I believe both guys will play. But it’s probably not 100-percent official but I just talked to them and they’re both feeling good.”
ON ANDREW WIGGINS’ POINT TOTALS THIS SEASON:
“Well he got off to a slow start. I think the absence last year took its toll. He’s a rhythm player and he didn’t appear to be in rhythm when the season started. Our team’s struggles had an effect on him. We moved him to the bench, we’ve moved him in and out of the lineup, we’ve put him with different people. So as we’ve searched for our team, he’s gotten lost in the shuffle a little bit. I think I can do a better job of getting him more involved, calling more sets for him to get him downhill. He’s still a very important player for us, he always guards the toughest guy, he’s a great teammate. He’s a young guy, Wiggs has plenty of basketball left in him, and I think he’s been much better here the last couple of months.”
ON THE IMPORTANCE OF TONIGHT’S GAME:
“We know we’ve got to win every possible game to get where we want to go. So that message doesn’t change whether it’s the Knicks, or Memphis, or the Pacers. We know the importance of every game. The thing we know about Memphis is they play hard, doesn’t matter who’s out there. We lost to Memphis out there the first game we played them this year, they were missing everybody. They made a million threes, and spread us out, and turned us over, and just played extremely hard, that’s their identity. Taylor (Jenkins) does an amazing job with their team and they have a culture, they call it ‘grit and grind’ and it’s real. That’s the warning to the guys before the game. Every time we play them we give them that qualifier. But at the same time even though they’re missing people they got some horses, Desmond Bane is back, Jaren Jackson is playing at a high level, we know what (Santi) Aldama can do, so they’ve got plenty of talent. We’re going to have to play well to win.”
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