National Basketball Association
Golden State 103, Utah 85
When: 10:30 PM ET, Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Where: Oracle Arena, Oakland, California
Officials:
#34 Kevin Cutler, #10 Ron Garretson, #20 Leroy Richardson
Attendance:
19596
By The Sports Xchange
OAKLAND, Calif. -- With an NBA Finals rematch against the Cleveland Cavaliers on deck, the Golden State Warriors responded Wednesday night as you might expect a champion to respond.
Who we playing next?
"I can honestly say I haven't heard a word about the Cavaliers," Warriors interim coach Luke Walton said after his club tuned up for its Christmas Day showdown with the Cavaliers by dispatching the Utah Jazz 103-85.
The Warriors (27-1) were perfect at the free-throw line but generally lackluster in most other areas offensively in extending their home-court winning streak to 31 regular-season games with their 13th in a row -- a franchise record -- this season.
In fact, the last visiting team to win at Oracle Arena was Cleveland, which recorded a 95-93 overtime victory in Game 2 of last June's NBA Finals.
The Warriors went on to capture the best-of-seven series 4-2.
"Our players are great about staying in the present," Walton said, praising his team's defensive intensity after it gave up an average of 113 points in the previous five games. "Our communication and effort level were more what we're accustomed to."
Friday's game will be the first between Golden State and Cleveland since the Finals. It will be the first of two regular-season meetings this season. The Cavaliers (19-7) bring the Eastern Conference's best record into the game.
"This is not a team that looks ahead on the schedule and worries about who's coming in here and where we're going," Warriors power forward Draymond Green said. "At the end of the day, it's a regular-season game. In the reality of our journey, it's not huge.
"So, yeah, we haven't talked about it at all."
Speaking of huge, the Warriors' streak of triple-digit scoring nights grew by one Wednesday as they became the first team since the 1990-91 Denver Nuggets to score 100 or more points in a 47th consecutive game.
It didn't come easily, which Warriors center Andrew Bogut blamed on the Jazz.
"You don't overlook teams in this league," Bogut said after one of his best efforts of the season, a 10-point, 13-rebound double-double. "We knew they were going to slow it down, keep it slow. We got into them (defensively) pretty well."
The Warriors' second win over the Jazz this season was hardly an attention-grabber. Golden State got just 16 points on 5-for-14 shooting from star guard Stephen Curry, neither outrebounded the Jazz overall nor outscored them off the bench, and survived a combined nine misses in 14 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc by Curry and backcourt mate Klay Thompson.
However, the Warriors got just enough offense from Thompson (20 points), Curry (16 points and nine assists), and Green (15 points, nine rebounds and six assists), enabling them to win a third in a row since taking their only loss of the season last week.
"We've got a lot of different weapons," Bogut said. "That's the reason we won a championship last season."
Center Derrick Favors had 17 points and nine rebounds, and shooting guard Rodney Hood 15 points, including three 3-pointers, for the Jazz, who, like the Warriors, entered the game on a two-game winning streak.
Having lost just 106-103 -- the Warriors' smallest margin of victory this season -- when the clubs met in Utah on Nov. 30, the Jazz (12-15) proved troublesome again despite being held to 13 points in the first quarter.
Utah outscored Golden State 25-24 in the second quarter, then got the first four points of the second half on free throws by small forward Gordon Hayward and Favors to get as close as 47-42.
However, Thompson countered immediately with a three-point play and then a 3-pointer, helping Golden State respond to its most serious threat of the night by creating a double-digit margin that became 16 before period's end.
The Warriors never led by fewer than 10 in the fourth quarter.
"You hear so much, you see so much about their offense, sometimes you forget what an effective team they are on defense," Jazz coach Quin Snyder said of the Warriors. "We didn't handle it well."
Hayward struggled through a 2-for-15 night for Utah, which remained winless in four road games this month. He finished with eight points and eight rebounds.
"Like I said, they're a good defensive team," Snyder said of Hayward's woes. "Gordon's been playing the best basketball of his career, and he didn't have a good night tonight. None of us really did."
Backup guards Trey Burke and Alec Burks had 13 points apiece for Utah.
NOTES: The Warriors announced Wednesday that head coach Steve Kerr, still recovering from offseason back surgery, would make their next trip -- a three-day, two-game trek to Dallas and Houston next week -- as a spectator and consultant. If all goes well, Kerr could make his season coaching debut Jan. 2 at home against the Denver Nuggets. ... The Warriors will take a .964 winning percentage into the Christmas Day game, the best mark on that date in league history. ... The Warriors went 16-for-16 from the free-throw line, the first time this season they achieved that type of perfection in a game. ... The road game was one of just two the Jazz will play over a 23-day stretch that ends Jan. 6.
Top Game Performances
Utah |
|
Golden State |
Derrick Favors 17 |
Scoring |
Klay Thompson 20 |
Trey Burke 3 |
Assists |
Stephen Curry 9 |
Derrick Favors 9 |
Rebounds |
Andrew Bogut 13 |
Gordon Hayward 4 |
Free Throws Made |
Klay Thompson 5 |
Joe Ingles 3 |
Steals |
Stephen Curry 3 |
Derrick Favors 2 |
Blocks |
Festus Ezeli 4 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Utah
|
85 |
41.2 |
7-20 |
12-14 |
14 |
40 |
3 |
9 |
20 |
Golden State
|
103 |
47.0 |
9-23 |
16-16 |
26 |
40 |
9 |
10 |
16 |
Upcoming Games
-
Golden State will play their next game at home against Cleveland. The Warriors have a W/L % of .963 after a win and 1.000 after a loss.
-
Utah will play their next game at home against L.A. Clippers. The Jazz have a W/L % of .385 after a win and .500 after a loss.