Category: Basketball

Thunder show Warriors why they can threaten Golden State's historic 73-9 mark originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors own the most impressive of regular-season NBA team records, most wins in a season. They took it from Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls not quite 10 years ago, but it’s already facing extinction.

They now know why: The Oklahoma City Thunder want the record — and have the goods to take it.

The Thunder rolled into the Bay Area on Tuesday night flashing such shiny possessions as month-old NBA championship rings and a gaudy 20-1 record that sits high atop the league. Golden State, for all its gallant second-half effort to get close, didn’t have enough to avoid a 124-112 loss because OKC’s closing lineup turned lethal.

The Warriors’ comeback attempt was inspiring insofar as it came without Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler III. Coach Steve Kerr turned to random lineups, and they worked – until they didn’t.

“I didn’t learn much,” Draymond Green said of the second half, when the Warriors outscored the Thunder 68-61. “But I hope our guys learned that if we play hard, we can compete with anybody.

“Whether Jimmy is out there or Steph is out there or not, it’s going to be much tougher. The margin for error is a lot less. But you give yourself a chance, and that’s all you can ask for. I hope that’s what we collectively learned.”

To be fair, OKC was taking full advantage of weakened prey. Curry is sidelined with a quad contusion, and Butler, a game-time decision with gluteal contusion, played 15 valiant first-half minutes before hobbling into the night with a sore left knee.

Yet the Warriors, who trailed by as much as 22 in the third quarter, got back in the game. With Seth Curry (14 points in 14 minutes in his Golden State debut) and Pat Spencer (15 points in 12 second-half minutes) leading the charge, the Warriors even took a lead inside the final five minutes, momentarily delighting the sellout crowd (18,064) at Chase Center.

The Thunder’s response was typical of a champion. Neither flinching nor blinking, they ignored the blood on their face and started coming at the Warriors like a squadron of specially trained soldiers, calmly smothering their offense, surgically eviscerating their defense and leaving them for the buzzards with a blistering 18-5 closing run over the final 4:40.

When the Thunder was seriously threatened, their leaders – Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren – turned clinical when it mattered most. OKC took eight shots inside over the final 4:40 and made seven.

“They’re 21-1 for a reason,” Kerr said. “Shai is the MVP for a reason. He goes 5 of 6 from three; the step back at the top of the circle was a huge shot. And it’s one you kind of have to live with. You don’t want him getting to the rim. And they made big shots. Isaiah Joe made a corner three. Jalen Williams made a big shot.

“So, give them credit. They’re NBA champs for a reason.”

Champs, yes, but the Thunder are aiming higher. They want to accomplish what the Warriors did not in 2016, which is set a record for wins and then repeat as champions.

“It’s hard, man, but I do think they’re capable,” Green said. “You just need so many things to go right though. Like health, which they kind of plow right through health, so it really don’t matter. You need a lot of breaks to go your way.

“They’re on the right track. And like I said, they’re more than capable. I think 73 wins took some years off my life. It’s hard. But like I said, they’re capable of a lot.”

The Warriors concluded their five-game homestand with a 2-3 record and will be at .500 (11-11) when they fly to Philadelphia on Wednesday to open a three-game tour through the Eastern Conference.

They’ll fly to Philly without Curry, who will stay in the Bay Area and rehab with Rick Celebrini, with the belief that he’ll be cleared when the Warriors return home and face the Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 12. Butler’s immediate availability is in question.

The Warriors are trying to find themselves while shorthanded.

Meanwhile, OKC will go home with a 21-1 record that puts it well within reach of the record 73 wins Golden State compiled in the 2015-16 NBA season. They might not get there, but they seem to have the necessary thirst for triumph.

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Seth Curry, unsurprisingly, fits seamlessly with Warriors in loss to Thunder originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — If anyone can ignite a Chase Center crowd in an instant, it’s a Curry.

Without superstar Steph Curry (quad contusion) for Tuesday’s 124-112 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder at Chase Center, his younger brother, Seth, who Golden State re-signed on Monday after waiving before the start of the 2025-26 NBA season, provided that signature Curry spark with 14 points, two rebounds and two assists on 6-of-7 shooting from the field and 2 of 3 from 3-point range in 17 minutes in his Warriors debut.

Curry helped fuel a monstrous 44-28 third quarter for Golden State, which trailed by 19 points at halftime before storming back to lead by as many as four points in the fourth quarter.

“It felt good, it felt good,” Curry shared postgame. “I’ve been waiting to get on this floor for a while now and the fans showed me a lot of love when I stepped on the floor and it felt good to go out there and make my first shot, kind of ease the pressure a little bit. And then from there, I’m just playing basketball.”

Seth’s performance, albeit not the typical Earth-shattering “Curry Flurry” that Golden State has grown accustomed to over the years, was impressive, and came as no surprise to Warriors coach Steve Kerr and his new teammates.

“He comes from the greatest shooting family in the history of basketball,” Kerr said. He’s a pro, the guy’s been around for a long time and he’s helped win a lot of games for a lot of teams. He kept himself ready and he just knows how to play. He’s in the right place at the right time, he doesn’t turn it over, he’s a good passer and he fights defensively. It’s great to have him.”

“It’s in his blood,” Warriors guard Pat Spencer added. “He’s always been a shooter, man. He’s got the green light to shoot it from anywhere on the floor just like his brother. We have full confidence it’s going in.”

Tuesday’s game was Curry’s first real NBA action since April 11 of last season, when he scored 17 points for the Charlotte Hornets in a loss to the Boston Celtics.

There appeared to be no sign of rust.

“It felt normal, it felt natural,” Curry said about his return to the court. “I was a little nervous, I wasn’t sure how I would feel when I got out there. It’s probably been seven, eight months since I played a game, but once I got up and down a couple times, it was basketball. Nothing new.”

The Warriors are hoping to have Steph, who will not travel with the team on its upcoming three-game road trip, back for the Dec. 12 game against the Minnesota Timberwolves. While his absence leaves a massive void in the starting lineup that nobody can fill, Golden State knows Seth is more than capable of replicating some of what his older brother can do on the court.

“Just to add that level of shooting,” forward Draymond Green explained. “He’s led the league in 3-point percentage multiple times, and at one point, I know he was the career leader … Just being able to add Seth and him come out and get going. What he did tonight was great for us, but the one thing we know he can do and we expect him to do is shoot the ball, so it’s on us to make sure we get him looks.”

For one of the greatest shooters in NBA history, that seems like the right call.

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Steph Curry won't travel on Warriors' road trip, out for the next three games originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Steph Curry, out since last Wednesday due to a right quad contusion, is scheduled to be re-evaluated on Thursday, but coach Steve Kerr took some of the guesswork out of the equation.

Curry won’t travel with the Warriors for their upcoming three-game road trip to Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago.

“He’s going to stay home. It was a long shot for him to play in the back-to-back and we don’t play again until Friday,” Kerr told reporters after the Warriors’ 124-112 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday at Chase Center. “So it just makes perfect sense for him to stay home with [director of sports medicine and performance] Rick [Celebrini], get the rehab done here, get his work in and hopefully be ready for Minnesota next Friday.”

Curry sustained the contusion and muscle strain in the Warriors’ 104-100 loss to the Houston Rockets last week at Chase Center.

The Warriors initially ruled Curry out for at least a week, but he will miss over two weeks if he returns next Friday.

The Warriors were able to beat the lowly New Orleans Pelicans without Curry on Saturday, but Golden State could have used the 37-year-old on Tuesday.

Instead, the two-time NBA MVP was forced to watch the loss from a suite. But he got to watch his younger brother, Seth, make his Warriors debut.

Seth Curry, who signed a contract for the rest of the season on Monday, scored 14 points on 6 of 7 from the field and 2 of 3 from 3-point range.

The elder Curry certainly enjoyed the display.

But he will like it even more when he can get on the court with his brother, and based on Kerr’s statement, that should come on Dec. 12 against the Timberwolves.

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What we learned as Warriors' epic comeback falls short in brutal loss to Thunder originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO – As predicted, the key to stopping the machine that is the Oklahoma City Thunder is a Warriors team being down both Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler.

No, the Warriors didn’t win, falling 124-112 Tuesday night at Chase Center. What they did do is flip a switch in the second half and fight until the very end. 

The Warriors outscored the Thunder 68-61 in the second half behind a plethora of role players answering the call.

Curry missed his second straight game due to a quad contusion. Butler, who came into the game questionable, did not play the entire second half. Butler played 15 minutes in the first half and was a minus-13. He scored six points on 2-of-7 shooting and grabbed three rebounds. 

Seth Curry made his long-awaited Warriors debut and was even better than anybody could have expected, scoring 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting while playing 18 minutes off the bench. 

Pat Spencer tied his career-high of 17 points, going 8 of 14 from the field, and added six assists without any turnovers. Brandin Podziemski also scored 17 points to go with four rebounds and four assists, but his four turnovers were a team high for the Warriors (11-11). 

Reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 38 points for the Thunder (21-1).

Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ loss to end a 2-3 homestand.

Butler Tries To Power Through

It was exactly three weeks ago when the Warriors lost by 24 points to the Thunder, with Steph Curry, in a game that they trailed by as much as 36. Beating the defending champions with their superstar was a tall enough task. Without him, the proposition felt impossible. 

After seeing the scary fall Butler took Saturday night in the Warriors’ win against the New Orleans Pelicans, sitting him would have been understandable. But after being questionable all day due to a left gluteal contusion, Butler played and gave his best effort. 

Butler was scoreless in the first quarter and only took one shot. He was ultra-aggressive to begin the second quarter, taking six shots and scoring six points. Halfway through the second quarter, Butler, slightly limping, went to the Warriors’ locker room. He returned for the final two minutes of the first half. 

The Warriors trailed by 11 when he exited the Warriors’ bench, and 14 once he returned a few minutes later. Trouble came in the final few seconds of the first half. Butler tried to cut behind the Thunder’s defense and wound up with a bad limp.

Butler was not on the floor or on the bench to begin the third quarter. At the end of the third quarter, he officially was ruled out the rest of the game because of left knee soreness.

Seth’s Sensational Debut 

Steve Kerr, during his pregame press conference, said he wouldn’t hesitate to play Curry after waiting to be signed for the last six weeks. The wait finally ended at the end of the first quarter. Curry was the Warriors’ 11th player to see the floor, coming in for the last 23.8 seconds of the first quarter. 

He then started the second quarter, too. Curry’s first shot attempt and make as a Warrior came with a little more than eight minutes left in the first half when he beat the buzzer and nailed a stepback jumper. The long-distance shooting the Curry family is known for showed up a little over a minute later. 

Those were Curry’s only two shots of the first half, making both. Curry was a big part of the Warriors’ third-quarter flurry, finding his rhythm and getting better as the game went on.

Curry, after scoring five points in the first half, scored nine in the second half – four in the third quarter and five in the fourth. The last thing he looked like was a player who had been on a month-and-a-half sabbatical. His first game as a Warrior was as encouraging as it possibly could have been. 

Stunning Second Half

Watching the Warriors without their Batman and Robin of Steph Curry and Butler can feel like putting anchovies on pizza. Cereal without milk. Dry, bland, and straight up gross.

Except something sparked inside them coming out of halftime without their top two stars. What looked to be a blowout loss became an absolute battle. The Warriors went from being down 19 points at halftime to making it a two-point game going into the fourth quarter, even cutting the deficit to one point with less than two minutes remaining in the third. 

After scoring just 44 points in the first half, the Warriors exploded for 44 points in the third quarter. A total of 10 Warriors played in the third quarter, and seven scored. Spencer scored nine points, Podziemski scored eight, Draymond Green scored seven, Gary Payton II and Jonathan Kuminga scored six, and Curry and Buddy Hield each scored four.

A three from Payton at the 8:28 mark of the fourth quarter gave the Warriors their first lead since it was 6-5. Each team kept throwing a combination of haymakers and body blows, connecting each time and never letting up. The more talented team just happened to prevail in the end. 

The Thunder scored 33 points in the fourth quarter, nine more than the Warriors’ 24.

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Jimmy Butler exits Warriors vs. Thunder game at halftime due to knee injury originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

After a trip to the Warriors’ locker room in the second quarter, Jimmy Butler was not on the floor to begin the second half of Golden State’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night at Chase Center.

The Warriors star ultimately was ruled out of the game with a sore left knee near the end of the third quarter.

Butler originally was listed as questionable for the game with a glute contusion after a hard fall in Saturday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans, but was cleared to play shortly before Tuesday’s tip-off. He appeared to be in discomfort following a play — which included losing his shoe — with 6:36 to go in the first half before heading to the Warriors’ locker room, and he then returned to the bench shortly after.

Butler didn’t come out of the locker room following the halftime break, however, and Gary Payton II started the second half in Butler’s place as Golden State trailed 63-44 against the defending NBA champions.

Up until his exit, Butler had scored six points on 2-of-7 shooting with three rebounds and one assist in 15 minutes of play. The Warriors already are without Steph Curry in Tuesday’s game, who is missing time with a quad contusion.

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Jimmy Butler exits Warriors vs. Thunder game at halftime after awkward play originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

After a trip to the Warriors’ locker room in the second quarter, Jimmy Butler was not on the floor to begin the second half of Golden State’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night at Chase Center.

Butler originally was listed as questionable for the game with a glute contusion after a hard fall in Saturday’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans, but was cleared to play shortly before Tuesday’s tip-off. He appeared to be in discomfort following a play — which included losing his shoe — with 6:36 to go in the first half before heading to the Warriors’ locker room, and he then returned to the bench shortly after.

Butler didn’t come out of the locker room following the halftime break, however, and Gary Payton II started the second half in Butler’s place as Golden State trailed 63-44 against the defending NBA champions.

Up until his exit, Butler had scored six points on 2-of-7 shooting with three rebounds and one assist in 15 minutes of play. The Warriors already are without Steph Curry in Tuesday’s game, who is missing time with a quad contusion.

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Observations after Sixers smoke Wizards, Maxey scores 35 in 29 minutes  originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

After suffering a double-overtime loss Sunday vs. the Hawks, the Sixers cruised to a low-stress win Tuesday night at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

They notched a 121-102 victory over the Wizards and moved to 11-9 on the season. 

Tyrese Maxey posted 35 points, six assists, four steals and four rebounds.

The Sixers were down Joel Embiid (right knee injury recovery), Quentin Grimes (right calf soreness), Kelly Oubre Jr. (left knee LCL sprain) and Trendon Watford (left adductor strain).

The 3-17 Wizards were shorthanded on the second night of a back-to-back.

The Sixers will host the Warriors on Thursday night. Here are observations on their win over Washington:

Strong second unit

The Sixers ran plenty of first-quarter plays for Paul George and he was aggressive as a jump shooter. George sunk two catch-and-shoot three-pointers in the first.

Sixers head coach Nick Nurse turned to his bench relatively early. Justin Edwards, Jared McCain and Adem Bona were all on the floor after a little over five minutes.

Bona committed a foul on his first defensive possession, biting on a Marvin Bagley III pump fake. The Wizards took the game’s first six free throws and went up 18-12 on a CJ McCollum mid-range jumper.

The Sixers’ bench then started to cook. 

McCain swished a three off of a baseline out-of-bounds play and made two driving layups in his first stint. Edwards also knocked down a pair of threes in the first quarter, breaking through a recent slump. He’d gone 4 for 24 beyond the arc over his past seven games. Bona had several possession-earning hustle plays that didn’t show up on the stat sheet, including a forced backcourt violation. 

Maxey in his comfort zone

Jabari Walker and Eric Gordon joined the mix in the second quarter. Walker drilled two straight corner threes and a Maxey jumper gave the Sixers a 54-40 lead. 

Maxey looked extremely comfortable leading the Sixers’ offense.

He followed up a season-high six turnovers Sunday with zero giveaways and seemed to get wherever he wanted to go.

Seconds after Maxey sat late in the second quarter, he had the pleasure of watching an explosive, audacious Edgecombe slam. 

Regulars rest in the fourth

The Sixers led by a dozen at halftime, but the Wizards scored the first seven points of the third quarter. George and Drummond missed jumpers late in the shot clock. Drummond picked up his fourth foul with 9:16 left in the third.

Edgecombe’s effort and athleticism helped the Sixers snap out of their funk and avoid another poor third quarter. He grabbed gritty offensive rebounds on consecutive possessions. The first board led to a George three, the second a Dominick Barlow and-one layup. 

The Sixers blew the game open late in the third quarter. McCain drained a transition three. Maxey found a groove and rapidly piled up points. After burying a step-back three, he snagged a steal and coasted the other way for a fast-break dunk that put the Sixers up 99-73.

Maxey subbed out to start the fourth quarter and it was soon abundantly clear he (and all the Sixers’ regulars) would be able to stay on the sidelines the rest of the night.

Drummond threw down a put-back dunk and splashed a corner three. The Sixers led by as many as 36 points, rookies Johni Broome and Hunter Sallis checked in, and Maxey finally finished a game with under 30 minutes. The NBA’s minutes leader logged a season-low 29.

Warriors' Steve Kerr marvels at ‘remarkable' Thunder's historic start to season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — Steve Kerr knows better than anyone in NBA history what it takes to break the single-season wins record.

He has done it twice.

First, as a player on the iconic 1995-96 Chicago Bulls team that went 72-10 in the regular season before securing its fourth of six NBA championships in eight years.

Then, as the coach of the 2015-16 Warriors, who went 73-9 in the regular season before losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.

Fast-forward to this season, and Kerr and the Warriors are preparing to face off against the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder, who enter Tuesday’s game at Chase Center with an NBA-best record of 20-1.

Not only are the Thunder off to a blistering-hot start, to put it mildly, but OKC currently is on pace to go 78-4 this season, which would shatter the records set by both of Kerr’s iconic teams.

While there is a long, long, long way to go before we officially are on Record Watch, this is the first team since the Warriors broke the record nine years ago that actually feels like they have a very real — if not likely — shot of doing the previously unthinkable.

So what will it take? Nobody knows better than Kerr.

“Overall team mindset of zero agendas, just win every night,” Kerr said pregame Tuesday when asked about the formula to win 70-plus games. “Obviously great talent, but I think high-IQ players [that those teams] had really high IQs individually and as a team, and that’s what I see with OKC. Really, really smart players, good coach, really connected. They’re on pace to shatter the record, it’s pretty remarkable what they’re doing.”

Oklahoma City went 68-14 in the regular season last year before notching 16 more victories in the playoffs, which gave the Thunder 84 total wins on the season, the third-most in NBA history.

Care to guess which two teams had more?

Not only have the Thunder picked up right where they left off in June, but they’re arguably more well-rounded as a team and playing better this season than they did throughout all of last year.

“They have a deeper level of confidence now that they’ve won it all, and then the continuity is so powerful,” Kerr explained. “All their actions that they’re running, they’re so comfortable with. They’ve expanded their offense a little bit, they have a little more motion than they did a year ago. And so these are all things that, in my experience, happen after the championship. After the first one. You’ve got a little different swagger, a little different belief. Next year is the harder one.”

We’re only 21 games into the regular season, and months away from Oklahoma City potentially needing to have some difficult conversations about how to approach the stretch run and how to put its stars in the best position to hoist another Larry O’Brien Trophy this summer.

However, if the Thunder’s potential record chase is anything like Kerr and the Warriors’, there might not be many conversations to be had.

And if there are, the message should be simple.

“We had a game late in the year in Memphis, maybe four or five games remaining, and I was really intent on playing a lot of people and not wearing our guys out,” Kerr recalled when asked if there was a moment where the Warriors decided they were going for the record. “At halftime, Draymond [Green] pulled me aside. He said ‘We really want this thing, let’s not mess around in the second half.’ That was the only discussion I really remember around the record.”

At some point, Oklahoma City will suffer its second loss. Will that be on Tuesday night against a Golden State team, or pieces of one, that once reached the mountaintop that the Thunder currently are climbing?

It seems unlikely, as the Warriors on Tuesday will be without superstar Steph Curry (quad contusion), who led his team to 73 wins nine years ago, but even the mightiest of teams can fall on any given night.

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