SAN FRANCISCO — Stephen Curry has never been more thrilled over winning his 11th regular-season game, but his excitement over his team’s Golden State Warriors’ 116-113 victory against Sacramento Kings Sacramento Kings on Monday night.
Following an unbeaten streak of five games The Warriors believed this was the closest to a must-win game that they could play at this point into the campaign.
The team’s win was largely due to the most recent Curry victory, in addition to some crucial 3-pointers from Andrew Wiggins down the stretch.
Curry completed the game with a game-high and season-high 47 points, shooting 17-of-24 with 7-of-12 shooting from 3 eight rebounds, along with eight assists. Curry scored 17 scoring points during the fourth quarter. Curry became the only player in history to have the stats and not have a turnover since the first time that turnovers were recorded in 1977 and 1978, according to Elias Sports Bureau. Elias Sports Bureau.
“It was very [2022] Game 4 of the NBA Finals to me. He just wasn’t going to allow us to lose,” Draymond Green stated. “Take that with a grain of salt because I’m not saying this game was as important. But you know when to get out of the way. It was one of those times where he was taking over.”
Curry’s dominance is desperately required to Golden State through the early period of the season while it struggles to defend and a sluggish bench. However, Curry insists that the load that he has to carry on behalf of his team isn’t an unnecessary burden.
“We have to understand that [the young players] are all going to get an opportunity to perform, and there are going to be some struggles — some real high highs, and some real low lows,” Curry stated. “That’s the story of this team. As vets, you understand every year is a little different and you are ready for that challenge. For these young guys to try to find themselves in this league and also a specific role, it’s challenging.”
Curry is scoring at or above 30 points in 8 of the games he’s played. He’s only the third person in the history of the franchise to accomplish this feat, joining Wilt Chamberlain as well as Rick Berry.
So so far, Curry has made 53 3-pointers during the season, the second-highest total in the first 10 games in a season. He is just behind his record-setting 59 made during the season of 2018-19.
“Steph was just breathtaking,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “He’s obviously one of the greatest players of all time, and he plays so well on so many nights. But this even seemed like something special for him.”
Curry was on the court for 38 minutes in the game against Sacramento and Klay Thompson. Green added 36 minutes as did Andrew Wiggins played a game-high 40. Kerr noted that since those four players were not playing in the game against New Orleans Pelicans two nights earlier and the team needed to win, he felt at ease “chasing this one with heavy minutes” for the players who started.
“It was obviously necessary,” Kerr declared. “But it’s not sustainable. So we know we can’t do this for a long time.”
The Warriors have had to depend on their starters for the majority of games this season, and have faced the prospect of a significant drop in their production in their bench time.
After their road trip that was not a success, Kerr vowed to switch his team’s rotation in an effort to discover a spark. He decided to shift his two-way playmaker Anthony Lamb higher up into the rotation, and also 2021 No. 7 overall selection Jonathan Kuminga, who was a DNP in three of the Warriors in the past seven games.
Despite the adjustments in the lineup, the Golden State bench struggled to get going in the end, being outscored 45-15 in the game against Sacramento. Jordan Poole continued his slow beginning of the season, scoring only two points and scoring a net rating of minus-11.
At the half time break, Kerr moved Poole into the starting line-up over Kevon Looney in an attempt to bring Poole moving but it didn’t work. Kerr did not return to Kuminga during the second half and was replaced by Moses Moody for just nine minutes during the entire game.
“We were not right in that first half after the good start. We lost our juice,” Kerr declared. “So the second half, it was more just figure it out … we did enough to get it done, but at that point, we were just flying by the seat of our pants.”
The only notable absences from the roster were reserve JaMychal Green, and 2020 No. 2 player James Wiseman, who is back after missing 18-months due to a meniscus tear and several setbacks.
Kerr stated that there could be chances that will allow JaMychal Green, and Wiseman to get back into the lineup in the near future, but at present, Kerr plans to play smaller groups that will include Draymond Green as well as Kuminga as back-up centres for Looney.
“It’s imperative that [Wiseman] uses this time to improve,” Draymond Green stated. “If you’re not in the lineup, you should be crushing yourself every single day. One thing for sure: Steve is going to call your number … you have to make sure you’re ready.”
