ORACLE ARENA — The Warriors celebrated their 100th consecutive sellout at home by clobbering the Miami Heat Wednesday night.
A 9-0 Golden State run in the first quarter gave the Warriors a lead they never relinquished en route to a 104-89 victory and their 15th straight home-win.
The Warriors, now a perfect 13-0 against Eastern Conference teams, won Wednesday’s contest with ease, jumping out early and never looking back.
Stephen Curry, with a game-high 32 points, scored the Warriors first nine points to open the game. But after Chris Bosh, the Heat’s only active threat of the first half, tipped in a shot to tie the game 9-9, the Warriors took off.
Sparked by Klay Thompson hitting his first trey of the night, the Warriors opened up their arsenal to take control of the game. With the second quarter underway and the second unit on the floor, the Warriors reserves stretched an 8-point lead into an 18-point lead.
Golden State’s bench finished the night outscoring Miami’s reserves 41-17, with all five bench players scoring at least seven points.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said it was the second unit played in the key stretch of the game. He told SFBay it was nice to see the defense come from a group some wouldn’t expect it from:
“Our defense really kicked in. David (Lee) was terrific, I loved his energy and he made some really good plays. Andre (Iguodala), as always, was in the right place and handled the ball for us with seven assists. That group was really good.”
Miami cut the Warriors lead to single-digits momentarily in the third quarter as Hassan Whiteside and Luol Deng started to find offensive rhythm, but the Heat were quickly cooled off by the sharp shooting of Curry.
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said his team competed better in the second half, but it wasn’t enough to get past the deficit created in the first half:
“It just wasn’t good enough basketball to get over the hump and give ourselves a real chance to win down at the end. They make it tough. “
Golden State withstood all of Miami’s comeback attempts. They finished the final frame maintaining their double-digit lead with Curry adding salt to the wound, hitting his seventh three-pointer of the night in the final moments.
The Warriors, now a league-leading 31-5, will head out on the road to play back-to-back against Oklahoma City (18-19) on Friday and Houston (27-12) on Saturday.
Curry told SFBay the upcoming back-to-back will be a good test for the Warriors against teams that are playing well and have big players back in their rotations:
“Its going to be a challenge. We know to win both of those games we have to put together a pretty solid 48 minutes for both games in two tough places to win. We’ve got to have full commitment from everybody on the roster that’s going to step out there to be physical, aggressive, play free and expect to win.”
Golden State returns home Monday to begin a five-game home stand against the Denver Nuggets.
Steve Kerr is the only first-year coach in NBA history to earn a 31-5 record through his first 36 games. … The Warriors won their 15th straight game at Oracle Arena, tying the team’s West Coast Era record for consecutive home wins (overall franchise record is 16-straight). … The Warriors improved to 13-0 this season against the Eastern Conference, joining the 1071-72 Lakers as the only teams to begin a season 13-0 vs. the East (Los Angeles started the season 19-0 against the East). … Stephen Curry led all scorers with 32 points, hitting 7-of-10 from long distance for his with 30-point game this season. … Former Warriors Basketball Camp member and Mountain View native Tyler Johnson made his NBA debut tonight and scored his first career points on a pair of free throws.
Follow @SFBay and @NBASarah on Twitter and at SFBay.ca for full coverage of the Golden State Warriors.
Last modified January 15, 2015 9:23 pm
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