LOS ANGELES: Stephen Curry finished with 31 points as the Golden State Warriors extended their league record streak of games without consecutive defeats with a dominating 138-109 win over the Phoenix Suns. The Warriors have now gone 106 games without back-to-back losses as they rebounded Saturday from a 132-127 double overtime defeat two night earlier to the Houston Rockets. The Warriors shot a season-high 62.8 per cent from the field against the Suns, just shy of their franchise record of 63.6 per cent. “It’s an incredible mark of consistency,” head coach Steve Kerr said of the Warriors’ streak.
They also shot 66.7 from three point range, going 14 of 21 as Klay Thompson made six of seven from long range and Curry was five of seven in front of a crowd of 19,500 at Oracle Arena.
Thompson finished with 26 points and Draymond Green had a season-high 13 assists, nine points and five rebounds for the Warriors, who improved to 17-3.
Kevin Durant added 20 points and eight assists. David West had a season-high 10 points off the bench, going five of five from the field.
Eric Bledsoe led the Suns with 27 points and Devin Booker had 21. Brandon Knight scored 14 points off the bench. Phoenix made 11 of 32 three-point shots.
The Warriors built a nine-point half-time lead and then dominated the Suns 42-27 in the third quarter to take a 108-84 advantage into the fourth. hey set a season high for third-quarter points and scored the second-most points in any quarter this season.
Curry had 20 points in the third quarter, going six of nine from the field and three of four from long range.
He nailed a three-point shot to put the Warriors ahead 91-67 with 4:43 left in the third. Curry drained another from long range with 2:30 remaining, giving the Warriors a 30-point lead at 101-71.
In Charlotte, North Carolina, Andrew Wiggins had 29 points while Karl-Anthony Towns collected 27 points and 15 rebounds as the Minnesota Timberwolves ended a four-game losing streak with a 125-120 overtime victory over the Charlotte Hornets. “We’ve been fighting the last four, five games, and we finally got over that hump,” Timberwolves guard Zach LaVine said. “It feels good.”
The Timberwolves used a fourth-quarter rally that began with a 10-0 run and a dominant overtime session to seal the victory.
Minnesota got 17 points from LaVine and 12 each from Shabazz Muhammad and Nemanja Bjelica.
In Dallas, Harrison Barnes and Wesley Matthews combined for 48 points to lead the Dallas Mavericks to just its fourth win of the season, a 107-82 wire-to-wire victory over the Chicago Bulls. — AFP
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