BROOKLYN — The last time Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant were at the center of the discussion of possible championship contenders, it was a foregone conclusion. The NBA’s two most prolific scorers, after all, were on the same team.
Two years later, Curry and Durant again top the list of the league’s scoring leaders but, now, for separate teams that could very well be the last two standing come June. On this Tuesday night in November, however, they offered a preview of a possible Finals series in a 117-99 Warriors win that had all the intensity of a heavyweight title bout.
Yet, by the end of it, Golden State had turned a potential playoff preview into an early season statement. After taking their first loss in eight games to start the road trip, a bounce-back win Tuesday had been all but decided by the end of the third quarter.
“This was a big game for us,” Andrew Wiggins said after scoring 19 points and locking down James Harden. “I feel like we came out here and we showed that we’re here, we’re a good team, we’re deep.”
Curry wowed the Brooklyn crowd with a game-high 37 points, to the point that half the arena was on their feet anytime Curry touched the ball in the fourth quarter, after Golden State built its commanding lead largely without their star.
“It’s not the playoffs, but it’s an intensity where you know you have to show up to beat a team like that. So you definitely get locked in, get focused,” Curry said. “It was the perfect storm of that and coming off a loss where (we) didn’t play well.”
Golden State outscored the Nets 35-18 in a signature post-intermission performance, turning a five-point halftime lead into 22 by the start of the final period, however much of it came without Curry, who sat the final seven minutes of the period after picking up his fourth personal foul.
“That third quarter defense was just suffocating,” Kerr said. “That was an important stretch of the game. Everybody was in foul trouble. … I thought the combination of Draymond and (Kevon) Looney at the rim and Wiggs on Harden … that turned the game.”
With four combined NBA MVPs and nine scoring titles sharing the floor at Barclays Center, the nationally televised Tuesday night showdown had all the starpower of a Finals matchup.
Curry and Durant went blow for blow through the first half, but both took a backseat after halftime, for different reasons.
Curry took Blake Griffin to the ground battling for a loose ball and picked up his fourth personal foul at the 7:00 mark of the third quarter, forcing him to the bench until the start of the fourth. With their star sitting, the Warriors still managed to extend their lead by seven more points.
Look no further than his counterpart for a reason why.
Durant attempted eight shots in the third quarter and missed them all. All 17 points the Warriors’ added to pad their lead came with him on the floor. He finished -24 for the game and only scored three points — all on foul shots — after halftime. James Harden, the other former MVP on the floor, couldn’t carry the Nets by himself but finished with a team-high 24.
Draymond Green, not an MVP but a defensive player of the year, was tasked with defending Durant.
“You can’t do a better job defensively than what Draymond did tonight,” Kerr said.
The two have a little history.
Green and Durant were jawing at times, and both got the best of each other on different occasions. Durant scored an efficient 12 first-half points but turned the ball over a couple of times when Green swatted his pass attempts.
Then Golden State’s defense locked down.
Kerr said he couldn’t recall another time Durant had come up emptyhanded for an entire quarter, let alone a half.
“Those guys are unbelievably difficult to handle,” Kerr said of the Nets’ duo of Durant and Harden. “But I thought all in all, after that first quarter when they had 34, we kind of corralled them and forced them into some tough shots. … I thought they looked a little bit tired in the third quarter, and our defense picked up at that point and made a bunch of stops and we were able to pull away.”
The Warriors’ third-quarter run couldn’t have been set up any better heading into halftime.
Andrew Wiggins gave Golden State a chance at a two-for-one with a 3-pointer with 25.6 seconds left in the half and was the one to capitalize on it with another bucket from distance as the buzzer sounded, a six-point swing that gave the Warriors a 63-58 lead at intermission.
However, like Curry, Wiggins was forced to the bench for much of the second half due to foul trouble. He picked up his fourth personal a minute and half before Curry did.
Even playing only 29 minutes, Curry managed to make nine of his 14 attempts from 3 (and shot 12-of-19 overall). It was Curry’s third such game this season, a feat only one other player in the NBA has accomplished once so far.
Within moments of his return in the fourth quarter, Curry had the crowd on their feet with his theatrics. The game had been decided by then, anyway.
