San Francisco – Despite their struggles on the road the Golden State Warriors stay hot at home. On Christmas day they beat the Memphis Grizzlies 123-109 without their star player, Stephen Curry. Call it a team effort, everyone except one player contributed to the game tonight. Jordan Poole scored 32 points before he was ejected.
“It’s a great win,” said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. “I mean, that’s one of the best teams in the league and to come off that disappointing trip and play the way we did tonight was really encouraging. And I just challenged the guys to build on it. We’ve got seven-straight home games coming up. We’ve been great at home, but we haven’t really built a lot of momentum this year.”
Golden State improved to 13-2 at home and tied for the best home record in the NBA with the Memphis win. The Warriors have won 12 of the last 13 contests at home, including its first-ever Christmas Day matchup against Memphis, improving to 15-17 all-time on December 25.
Golden State has played on Christmas Day in 12 of the last 13 years, including the last 10 seasons consecutively. The 14-point win was the largest Christmas Day win for the Warriors, surpassing 12-point victories twice (1966 and 2019). The Warriors defeated the Grizzlies for the first time in the last three regular season meetings and for the second time at Chase Center.
“Jordan was fantastic tonight and we needed his offensive power,” Kerr said.
Poole was clicking on all cylinders, he had 17 points in the first quarter. He hit back-to-back 3s in the first before making shots inside and above the arc. Poole scored a team-high 32 points before leaving the game after receiving his first career ejection with 9:20 left in the fourth quarter.
He got his second technical foul in the fourth, and the team had a total of six technicals including Kerr. Poole recorded his sixth 30-point game of the season (17th of his career). Draymond Green recorded his third double-double of the season with 13 rebounds and 13 assists. Klay Thompson recorded 24 points, his 10th 20-point game of the season. The 24 points matched a Christmas Day scoring high for the third time.
“It was a great win,” said Thompson. “I give a ton of credit to Jordan Poole. He really played so incredibly that first half, he is doing his best Steph (Stephen Curry) impression and it is just wonderful to see. I also give so much credit to our bench. I am just proud of these young guys for staying ready and not being deflated after a tough road trip. That was a real group effort. That was strength in numbers, that is what that really was about.”
With 31 assists, Golden State recorded their league-leading 19th 30-assist game of the season and are averaging a league-best 29.4 assists per game. The Warriors improved to 5-1 this season when grabbing at least 50 rebounds (had 51 rebounds tonight).
Golden State scored 40 points in the third quarter, a season-high points for that quarter. The Warriors are now 4-0 this season when posting a 40-point quarter. The starting lineup of Donte DiVincenzo, Green, Kevon Looney, Thompson and Jordan Poole improved to 2-0 this season (12/18 at Toronto was the only other game this starting lineup was used).
“Everybody that came off the bench tonight played really well,” DiVincenzo. “I think that’s huge for us to build off of. We can’t come in and or be happy that we won one game. We got to build off of this and string something together and it really starts to kind of lock in and build during this homestand.”
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