Golden State Warriors Blog – Page 58 – NBA Blog

Dwight Howard annoyed by elbow from David Lee

The Lakers center hardly sounded in a good mood for plenty of reasons. The Lakers’ 109-103 loss Monday to the Golden State Warriors marked the team’s third consecutive loss. The Lakers (36-35) only have a one-game lead over the Utah Jazz (35-36) for the eighth playoff spot. Howard’s 11 points on 4 of 8 shooting only featured only two field-goal attempts in the second half.

But Howard remained largely upset over taking an elbow from Golden State Warriors forward David Lee in the second quarter, a sequence that prompted Howard both to foul him and draw a technical with 3:15 left in the second quarter after jawing with him.

“He got away with a shot,” Howard said. “I’ll remember this game.”

— Reported by Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News (Blog)

Duncan leads Spurs past Warriors 104-93

The San Antonio Spurs just keep winning, especially when they face the Golden State Warriors at home.

Tim Duncan had 25 points, 13 rebounds, six assists and four blocks, and San Antonio beat Golden State 104-93 on Wednesday night for its 29th straight home win against the Warriors.

Golden State has not won in San Antonio since Feb. 14, 1997, the season before Duncan was selected No. 1 overall by the Spurs.

”He’s a Hall of Fame player, an all-time great,” Warriors coach Marc Jackson said. ”He certainly had a big game tonight.”

Tiago Splitter added 17 points and Manu Ginobili had 16 points and seven assists for San Antonio (52-16), which has won three straight and seven of nine overall. Nando De Colo had 10 points.

The Spurs are right behind Miami (53-14) for the league’s best record.

Stephen Curry had 24 points for Golden State (39-31), which remains sixth in the West. Jarrett Jack had 14 points, and David Lee added 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Golden State closed to 92-88 when Curry went 1 for 2 at the line, but Duncan threw in a running hook and a 16-foot jumper to give San Antonio an eight-point lead with 2:37 remaining.

— Reported by the Associated Press

Bulls beat Warriors in impressive rout, 113-95

Embarrassed one game, handing out humiliation the next.

Such is life for the Chicago Bulls right now.

Luol Deng scored 23 points, Carlos Boozer had 21 points and nine rebounds, and the banged-up Bulls bounced back from their most lopsided loss of the season to whip the Golden State Warriors 113-95 on Friday night.

”I do know we have pride,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. ”We’ve taken a hit. We’ve lost some guys along the way. Our guys will battle. We know that we’re short-handed. But if we have the right intensity and we do it collectively, we have a chance. And we’ve shown it throughout the year.”

Maybe this week more than any other.

Two nights after a 121-79 shellacking at Sacramento that renewed calls for Derrick Rose’s return, the Bulls outscored the Warriors 38-17 in the third quarter en route to snapping a season-high, five-game road losing streak. They led by 36 points early in the fourth quarter before both sides cleared the benches.

Nate Robinson added 20 points and seven assists, while Joakim Noah finished with 16 points and 13 rebounds for Chicago, which had lost four of five overall. The Bulls outshot the Warriors 52 to 45 percent and won the rebounding battle 43-34, though the final box score hardly showed how much of a blowout the game really was.

— Reported by Antonio Gonzalez of the Associated Press

Every game counts for playoff-hungry Warriors

Just over an hour before the Warriors tipped off against Sacramento on Wednesday, a backroom off the Warriors locker room erupted into cheers. Moments later, several players exited looking like they’d just won something.

In a way, they had.

Utah, part of a group of six teams contending for the final three playoff spots in the Western Conference, just put the finishing touches on a collapse at Cleveland, which allowed Golden State to extend its lead over the Jazz to 2.5 games later in the night.

Being in contention for the postseason has turned the Warriors into fans of teams they’d usually have no interest in monitoring.

“It’s a little bit of a different mindset,” All-Star forward David Lee said. “We’re watching Utah play and we’re watching Houston play before our games start and the Lakers play. We’re all excited about the outcomes of those games and we’re rooting for teams in the Eastern Conference.”

— Reported by Kyle Bonagura of CSN Bay Area

Warriors beat Raptors 125-118 to snap 4-game skid

David Lee had 29 points and 11 rebounds to back Andrew Bogut’s strong return, and the Golden State Warriors snapped a four-game losing streak by outlasting the Toronto Raptors 125-118 on Monday night.

Stephen Curry added 26 points and tied a season high with 12 assists, and Klay Thompson scored 10 of his 22 points in the fourth quarter to help the Warriors pull away with a 9-0 run late. Bogut had four points and eight rebounds in a season-high 30 minutes after missing the last six games because of a bad back.

Andrea Bargnani scored 26 points and tied a career high with five 3-pointers, and Amir Johnson added 23 points and 15 rebounds in Toronto’s fifth straight loss. Kyle Lowry finished with 11 points, 11 rebounds and nine assists, and Rudy Gay scored 26 points after missing the Raptors’ loss at Milwaukee on Saturday night with back spasms.

Golden State’s streaky shooting still proved to be too much. The Warriors outshot the Raptors 57 to 44 percent and made 23 of 28 free throws.

After a frustrating 1-4 road trip, Golden State began a stretch of seven straight and 16 of its last 22 at home. The Warriors improved to 19-7 this season at Oracle Arena, where the ever-loyal fan base has sold out 17 straight games and is begging for a playoff berth.

— Reported by Antonio Gonzalez of the Associated Press

Stephen Curry scores 54 points in Warriors 109-105 loss to Knicks

Stephen Curry rose for another jumper, and by then even the Knicks probably figured it would go in.

Curry had hardly missed in a scintillating second half of the NBA’s most electric performance this season, the crowd cheering even before the ball left his hands.

This time, Raymond Felton jumped with him, making the play New York needed to finally withstand Curry.

Felton’s blocked shot led to J.R. Smith’s tiebreaking basket with 1:10 left, and the Knicks overcame Curry’s NBA season-high 54 points to beat the Golden State Warriors 109-105 on Wednesday night.

Curry was 18 of 28 from the field, finishing one shy of the NBA record with 11 3-pointers in 13 attempts, in a performance that had the crowd hanging on his every shot. But the Knicks and Felton finally stopped him with 1:28 to play and the score tied at 105…

Carmelo Anthony followed Smith’s basket with another one and the Knicks hung on to spoil former Knicks star and Warriors coach Mark Jackson’s homecoming.

Anthony finished with 35 points and Smith had 26…

Playing all 48 minutes, Curry finished with seven assists and six rebounds while passing his previous career best of 42 points, and Kevin Durant’s 52-point performance that had been the best in the NBA this season.

”I felt good all night. Obviously played the whole game, so was just trying to keep my legs underneath me on the offensive end, and you know, just stick to the game on the defensive end,” Curry said. ”Once I started seeing that 3-ball go down in transition, all sorts of spots on the floor, I knew it was going to be a good night.”

But he had little help without All-Star forward David Lee, who was suspended one game for his role in an altercation Tuesday night in Indiana.

Tyson Chandler had 16 points and a career-best 28 rebounds for the Knicks, who won their second straight after a season-high, four-game losing streak. Amare Stoudemire had 14 points and Anthony added eight assists on the day the Knicks learned they could be without reserve forward Rasheed Wallace for the rest of the season because he needs surgery to repair a broken bone in his left foot.

— Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

David Lee wants to play for Team USA

Jerry Colangelo doesn’t know who the coach will be and is still holding out hope it will be Mike Krzyzewski. But some of the players are coming together who could represent Team USA at the World Cup next year in Spain.

Colangelo, chairman of USA Basketball, said Tuesday by phone that Golden State Warriors forward David Lee, a former University of Florida star, approached him at All-Star Weekend earlier this month in Houston to indicate his desire to play for Team USA. And Colangelo is intrigued.

“He’s had a heck of a year,’’ Colangelo said. “He’s been healthy. He’s been with us before but he had injuries.’’

Lee was in Team USA’s training camp in the summer of 2010 in preparation for the last World Cup, which was then known as the World Championships. Lee was considered to have a good chance to make the team, which eventually won gold in Turkey. But he had to drop out due to a finger injury.

— Reported by Chris Tomasson of Fox Sports Florida

Pacers beat Warriors after 4th-quarter scuffle

If the Indiana Pacers learned anything from their 108-97 win over the Golden State Warriors on Tuesday, it’s exactly how close they are as a team.

Team unity and having each other’s back has been a theme for the Pacers, and they had a chance to show it when center Roy Hibbert got involved in a fourth-quarter scuffle.

Hibbert was ejected following the skirmish that began when he and David Lee exchanged shoves under the basket after a missed shot.

”There were two or three guys coming after (Hibbert),” Pacers forward David West said. ”We preach and talk about togetherness, so that’s part of what we’re going to do. We’re going to defend one another. They came after him too many times.”

West, who had 28 points and seven rebounds, also was called for a technical foul, along with the Warriors’ Lee, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, for the altercation.

No players left the bench…

George Hill had 23 points and seven assists, and Paul George had 21 points and 11 rebounds for the Pacers (36-21), who have won five straight.

Curry scored a season-high 38 points and Thompson had 13 for the Warriors (33-24), who had a three-game winning streak snapped.

— Reported by Jim Johnson of the Associated Press

Jarrett Jack rallies Warriors to 100-99 win over Wolves

Jarrett Jack has been a rock-steady pro for eight years now, the kind of reliable performer contending teams crave.

Even though he is still coming off the bench for Golden State, he’s found himself in more of a starring role lately, and he showed the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday that he is equally comfortable as the leader of a playoff-caliber unit.

Jack had 23 points and eight assists to rally the Warriors to a 100-99 victory over the Timberwolves.

David Lee had 22 points and 13 rebounds for the Warriors, who trailed by 16 in the first quarter before Jack jumpstarted the offense as he has all season. Reserve Carl Landry added 19 points and nine rebounds for Golden State, which has won three in a row following a six-game losing streak…

Derrick Williams had 23 points and 12 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who had a chance to win it in the final seconds. But Luke Ridnour’s mad dash down the court ended with a floater that was off the mark, and the Warriors escaped.

Nikola Pekovic had 21 points and eight rebounds, and Ricky Rubio had 16 points, 11 assists, eight rebounds and six steals for Minnesota, which scored just 18 points in the fourth.

— Reported by Jon Krawczynski of the Associated Press

Warriors center Andrew Bogut out resting his back

Warriors center Andrew Bogut didn’t fly with the team from Oakland as it started its final extended road trip of the season Saturday because of a disc protrusion that is causing back spasms, according to team officials.

The 7-foot, 260-pounder played only 12 of the team’s first 54 games because of left ankle surgery and missed Friday’s overtime win against NBA-leading San Antonio after his back started acting up. He missed 43 games with a stress fracture in his lower back in 2008-09, a game in 2009-10 with a mid-back strain and five games in 2010-11 with a sore back.

The Warriors say there is no real timetable for Bogut’s return, but they’re holding out hope that he can join the team at some point during their five-game trip.

— Reported by Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle (Blog)