Stephen Curry's first-half masterclass helps Golden State Warriors to 11th straight win
Tuesday 29 January 2019 08:04, UK
Stephen Curry scored 23 of his game-high 26 points in the first half as the Golden State Warriors extracted a measure of revenge with a 132-100 thumping of the Indiana Pacers in Indianapolis.
The Warriors won their 11th straight and their 10th in a row on the road, against a Pacers team that last season became the first Eastern Conference club in the five-year Steve Kerr coaching era to sweep a season series from Golden State.
The 132-point output was the second most by a Pacers opponent this season and was the seventh time in the Warriors' past 13 games that they reached 130.
The loss was the second straight for Indiana since losing star man Victor Oladipo for the season to a torn quad tendon last week.
Curry hit all five of his three-point attempts and nine of 10 shots overall in his first-half explosion, during which the Warriors scored 40 first-quarter points en route to an early 21-point lead.
Curry finished 10 of 13 from the floor, and 6-8 from three-point range as the Warriors completed a 5-0 road trip.
Playing in his just fifth game, DeMarcus Cousins dropped in a season-best 22 points for the Warriors and also found time for six rebounds and four assists in 25 minutes.
Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson added 16 points apiece and Kevon Looney had 15 for Golden State, who improved their NBA-best road record to 18-8 despite giving Draymond Green the night off to rest. The Warriors outshot the Pacers 54.1 percent to 42.6 percent.
Myles Turner led five players in double figures for Indiana with 16 points, but the Pacers fell to 7-6 this season without Oladipo, the team leader in scoring and steals.
"I feel like we can," Curry said when asked if the Warriors can get even better. "We're not playing perfect basketball, by any stretch, but we're playing consistent, focused basketball and we're still working out some kinks with rotations and stuff like that."
Coach Steve Kerr said: "I was a little worried about this game. Everybody's anxious to get home. But we finished off the trip the right way. We've been more dialled in the last month than we have all season."
