What we learned as Warriors beat Grizz to stay undefeated in NBA Cup

What we learned as Warriors beat Grizz to stay undefeated in NBA Cup originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO – Matching the energy of Tuesday night simply wasn’t going to happen three days later at Chase Center.

The air in the building throughout Klay Thompson’s return was that of an NBA playoff atmosphere. The mood Friday night buffered as often as millions streaming a spectacle of a 58-year-old pigeon fiend fighting a cartoon character cosplaying as a boxer.

A letdown game certainly was on the table. Instead, the Warriors fought off early shooting struggles and outlasted the Ja Morant-less Memphis Grizzlies, 123-118.

Steph Curry in his previous two games scored a total of 73 points and made 12 3-pointers. The Grizzlies made it a point to face-guard Curry wherever he went, which led to him scoring just 13 points in 26 minutes. Curry only took nine shots, going 4 of 9 overall and 3 of 7 on threes. But he did add eight rebounds, five assists and four steals.

As the Warriors made 19 threes and had a 41.3 3-point percentage, the Grizzlies only made seven, with a lowly 16.7 3-point percentage. The Warriors also won the bench battle, 67-61.

Here are three takeaways from the Warriors improving to 10-2, as well as 2-0 in the NBA Cup.

Draymond From Downtown

On a night where Curry isn’t an inferno, every point counts. Especially from Draymond Green, and even more so behind the 3-point line.

Green missed his first two 3-point attempts in the first quarter and didn’t try once in the second. But in the third, he connected on 2 of 4 shots from long distance. That isn’t exactly a heater, but historically it is a big deal for Green and Golden State as a whole.

Back-to-back threes early in the third quarter by Green gave the Warriors an 11-point lead on both makes. It also pushed his streak of hitting multiple threes to four consecutive games, matching a career high. How big of a deal is that? The Warriors now are 140-30 all time in the regular season when he makes two or more 3-pointers in a game.

This past season, Green shot a career-high 39.5 percent on 3-pointers. After going 3 of 7 against the…


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Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-11-16 06:05:00

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