J-Speaks: Record Setting Three Games for Defending Champion Warriors

The back-to-back defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors have looked everything like it in the early stages of the 2018-19 NBA season with an 8-1 mark, the best in the NBA. Their dynamic All-Star “Core 4” of former league MVPs Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, sharp shooting Klay Thompson and the ultimate swiss army knife Draymond Green have played at a very high level out the gate for head coach Steve Kerr. They have especially looked the part during their six-game winning streak where three of their “Core 4” has made some history. 

Beginning last week in the “Big Apple” Durant scored 25 of his game-high 41 points in the fourth quarter as the Warriors took down the pesky New York Knicks (2-6) at Madison Square Garden 128-100 a week ago. He was 17 for 24 from the field, which included a 10 for 13 effort in the final period. Durant was 5 for 9 from three-point range on the evening with nine boards and five assists. 

Durant, who was the center of attention entering the game as he is the top free agent this summer as he is expected to opt out of the final year of his two-year contract he signed this summer said after his performance in a place Knicks fans hope he considers signing with possibly, “It feels like when you catch every green light when you’re going somewhere.”

Two nights later in the opposite borough of New York, NY Curry scored a game-high 35 points going 11 for 26 from the field, including 7 for 15 from three-point range as the Warriors won at the Brooklyn Nets (3-5) 120-114. 

The seven knockdowns from distance by the two-time Kia MVP hit five three-pointers in an NBA record seventh straight game, surpassing the record of six straight by former Dallas Mavericks’ sharp shooter George McCloud during the 1995-96 NBA season. 

Second on this list in a five-way tie for fifth are All-Star swingman of Oklahoma City Thunder Paul George, Curry, and reigning Kia MVP James Harden, who all did it a season ago. Curry also had a streak of five back in 2015-16 and now NBATV analyst and sideline reporter Dennis Scott did for the Orlando Magic 20 years prior. 

In the Warriors last home game prior to their three-game swing out East, a 144-122 win versus the disappointing Washington Wizards (1-6), Curry went 11 for 16 from three-point range scoring a game-high 51 points, going overall 15 for 24 from the field and 10 for 10 from the free throw line in just three quarters of work. 

“It’s what I love to do,” Curry said to NBATV’s Chris Miles after the win at the Nets about his hot streak of scoring 29-plus in the first seven games to start the season. 

“Put in a lot of time over the summer and obviously as many as I shoot I better make a lot of them. So, obviously I have a lot of confidence. I’m in rhythm. Getting a lot of great shots. My teammates have been setting me up coming off screens and things like that. So, all those things combined have kind of gotten me off to a great start. Want to sustain this as long as I can.”

As hot as Curry has been, his fellow “Splash Brother” in Thompson has been as cold from distance going 5 for 36 from three-point range to begin this season. 

He more than rectified that 24 hours later in the “Windy City” as he scored 52 points, going 18 for 29 from the floor overall, including an NBA record 14 three-pointers in 24 tries as the Warriors eradicated the Chicago Bulls on their home court 149-124 on Monday night. 

“We never worry about Klay shooting the basketball,” Curry who had 23 points, eight boards and five assists on the evening said after the game to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Kerith Burke about Thompson’s shooting woes to start the season. “It was fun to watch.” 

To put into perspective what Thompson did at the Bulls, his 14 connection from three-point range are one more than what the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons and Los Angeles Lakers hit in total in the 1979-80, 1980-81, and 1981-82 respectably. It is three more than what the Hawks and Lakers hit in total 10 during the 1980-81 and 1982-83 season respectably. 

Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas, who played his entire 13-year career with the Pistons from 1981-94 made three more triples total 17 in his entire rookie season of 71 games played than the 14 Thompson had at the Bulls.  

“Mixed emotions but most importantly I feel great though,” Thompson, whose performance came in just 26 minutes of work said to NBATV’s Chris Webber and Hall of Famers Isiah Thomas and Kevin McHale after the win and is record setting performance.

“I needed this. I wasn’t shooting the ball my best these first seven games but I knew I was due for a big night eventually.”

How hot was Thompson that night? He made more threes in the opening period six then he had in total coming in five as he had 22 points in the opening period on 6 for 7 from long range. He tied an NBA record for threes in a half Thompson did with 10. The Warriors set a new franchise record with 92 in the first half and set a new NBA record with 17 triples made in the first two quarters. 

After colliding with teammate Damion Jones early in the third quarter where he sustained a cut on his forehead came back moments later out of timeout and made two more three-pointers. 

Thompson did have that cut tended to later in third and had it covered with a gold head band, where he set the new NBA record with his 14^th triple at the 4:55 mark of the third quarter and celebrated with his teammates as they headed for their bench for a timeout with a 113-69 edge. 

Thompson broke the mark set by his teammate in Curry who made 13 threes in a victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Nov. 7, 2016.

“He looked kind of weak with the headband like he don’t belong in the NBA if you were just walking out the huddle, and you never knew who he was. Was just trash,” Durant said to reporters jokingly after the game about Thompson sporting the headband. 

“But you look up at that scoreboard and you see 52 up there and he’s walking out with five minutes to go in the third is just ridiculous.” 

These last three games not only showed how good the back-to-back defending champion Warriors, who have won three Larry O’Brien trophies in the last four seasons are but how together they are in terms of their play on the floor. 

In that victory versus the Wizards back on Oct. 24, Curry was rolling offensively and his teammates found a way to get him the ball through crisp passes and solid screens and he made the shots when they became available as Green was the high assist man on the evening with 12. Durant who had 30 points had seven assists with eight rebounds. 

In the victory at the Knicks at the start of the week Durant got rolling in the fourth period and his teammates willingly kept feeding him the ball to make shots. That resulted in the Warriors outscoring the Knicks 47-16 in the fourth to pull away. 

At the Nets two nights later, Curry had one of his worst shooting games on the young season as he was just 11 for 26 from the floor overall after a hot start of 24 points in the opening half, including one of his strikes from close to half court near the close of the second quarter. 

When it mattered most though, Curry came through as he scored six points in the final 1:02, which included a dagger triple, his seventh of the night that put some distance between the Warriors and the Nets. 

While Curry had a rough shooting night, Durant helped out with 34 points with eight rebounds and six assists. Green had just eight points, but had 13 assists, a game-high again and five steals. 

In the Warriors blowout win at the Bulls on Monday night where Thompson set the record for threes made, Green, Durant, Curry, Jones, Jordan Bell, Kevon Looney, and others set good screens and made the right passes to get him open as Green had another double-digit assist game with 12 while Durant contributed seven. 

That passing is how the Warriors also got double-digit scoring from three reserves as newest addition Jonas Jerebko had 10 points and five boards off the bench, hitting both of his threes. Undrafted rookie forward Alfonzo McKinnie, a Chicago native had his first double-double of the season with 19 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, hitting 4 for 6 from three-point range and reserve guard Quinn Cook had 16 points off the pine. 

“That’s the beauty of our team is we got the two of the best shot creators in basketball, Steph Curry to Kevin Durant. One of the best point forwards out there Draymond Green, who is like a point guard and our new guy in the starting lineup Damian Jones whose such a great floor spacer above the rim. Set great screens,” Thompson, who had the third 50-plus point game of his career said to Webber, Thomas, and McHale about the togetherness the Warriors play with. 

“We’re all in tune with each other to the fact that who’s ever hot we’re going to get him the ball. Whether it’s K[Durant] we’ll get it to him on the block. Let him get into his iso game. Steph, we’ll set that high pick-and-roll but for me my game is running around. Coming off great screens and just trying to get my feet set, and let it fly.” 

“I perfected that part of my game and that’s what makes us special is well have our unique ability to score.” 

What they also have is a unique ability to enjoy the success of one another but to also hold each other accountable. 

Going back to the win at the Knicks, All-Star DeMarcus Cousins, who the team added in the off-season but has not played yet because he is recovering from a serious Achilles injury sustained back in January was tossed late in the first quarter after arguing with veteran official Scott Foster. 

Cousins whose attitude and maturity had been called into question since his days with the Sacramento Kings and the last two seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans did have a good talk with Coach Kerr about that situation where he had to learn that those antics will not work if he wants to change his image and get that big contract that he did not get from any other team this summer. 

“That kind of stuff is not going to help us win a championship, it’s not going to help his reputation and I think he understands that,” Kerr said. 

We did not learn anything new about the back-to-back defending champion Warriors that we have not known the past four seasons. It just reminded us though of how good they are but how together they are. There have been very few teams that have had this kind of roster where they are four All-Stars, two MVPs and a bunch of role players who genuinely like and respect each other from the players to the coaching staff. 

This week showed us that special things can happen for a team when everyone is locked in on the ultimate prize which for the Warriors is winning a third straight title joining the Chicago Bulls, Boston Celtics, and Los Angeles Lakers as the only teams to do so in NBA history. Along this journey to that goal, they understand that it is a process and that it should be enjoyed and appreciated. 

That is why the team after the victory at the Knicks did a flash dance to the remix of star singer Fergie’s abhorrent rendition of the National Anthem she sang at last year’s NBA All-Star Game. 

It is why Cousins apologized for taking the attention away from what the Warriors were doing on the floor against the Knicks. 

How Durant, the 2014 Kia MVP, Curry, and Thompson are the third team in NBA history to have three different players score 40 points or more in four games. They joined Hall of Famers Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars and Terry Mills who did for the Detroit Pistons in the 1992-93 season and the Hall of Fame duo of Jerry West and Gail Goodrich and Jim McMillian of the 1971-72 World Champion Los Angeles Lakers. 

Why the team that leads the NBA in field goal percentage (52 percent) and assists per game respectably at 29.6 can if they have the type of defense the Bulls played against them can light up the scoreboard, which is a trend going on during the early stages of this NBA season for all 30 teams. 

“You better embrace it [or] you’re gonna lose and every time we’ve won a championship three-point shot was a big part of it,” San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said back in 2015 about the importance of three-point shooting to an NBA team. “Because it is so powerful and you got to be able to do it and nobody does it better than Golden State, and you know where there at.”  

It is also why Thompson, an unrestricted free agent at season’s end said how lucky he is to be on a team where he could have the kind of poor start he had shooting the ball from distance and they still have lost just one game early on this season. 

“I just look at the history of the game. All the greatest teams to ever play this game have had three or four guys who were All-Stars and Hall of Famers,” he said. 

“It’s just a blessing to be on a team this stacked and this talented because we can leave an imprint on the legacy of basketball and that’s more important to then having my own team or getting 24 shots a game. It’s about leaving a dynastic impact on the history of the game and I think we have the ability to do that this year and beyond.”  

Information, statistics, and quotations are courtesy of 10/29/18 1 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Matt Winer, Candace Parker, and Greg Anthony; 10/29/18 6 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “The Starters,” with Tas Melas, J.E. Skeets, Leigh Ellis, and Trey Kerby; 10/29/18 10:30 p.m. NBATV “Players Only” Postgame Show with Chris Webber, Isiah Thomas, and Kevin McHale; 10/30/18 3 p.m. edition of “NBA: The Jump” on ESPN with Rachel Nichols, Brian Windhorst, Paul Pierce, and Tracy McGrady; 10/29/18 www.nba.com story, “About Last Night: Curry Stays Hot,” by Dan McCarney; 10/30/18 6:30 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “10 Before Tip,” presented by Ford with Jared Greenberg; www.espn.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/gs; www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/gs; and www.espn.com/nba/standings.