The Warriors proved a few days ago that they can win in the absence of Curry, and this morning they showed that they are also capable of doing it with a gray version of Steph. Steve Kerr’s team added their 15th victory by defeating the Toronto Raptors 119-104, who were clearly imposed from the first moment to take the duel in a rather comfortable way. Those of San Francisco were always ahead and already in the first quarter they commanded by 20 points of distance, an income that they maintained until the end without too many shocks or threats of comeback.
All this with only 12 points from Stephen Curry, whom the Canadians tried to stop in every possible way and who to some extent managed to deactivate. The point guard remained at a poor 2/10 in field goals, and although he managed to distribute 8 assists and generated spaces and options with his movements without the ball, he was far from making a good game. However, deactivating Curry implies taking many risks that the rest of his teammates knew how to penalize.
“Our scoring balance means that opponents can no longer go all out against Steph,” said Kerr. “That’s what happened last year, they were all after him.”
Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole, with 32 and 33 points respectively, took advantage of this situation to sign great performances, not only because of their great scoring volume but also because of the efficiency with which they achieved it. The Canadian shot with a 60% effectiveness (12/20) on field goals, including a 6/8 on triples, while the guard was even more precise and needed only 13 shots, of which he scored 10 (8 / 11 in triples). Both were a constant punishment for the defense of the Raptors, which meant that the scoring rhythm of the locals never slowed down and they did not have excessive problems keeping their advantage.
On the other hand, Otto Porter Jr. stood out starting from the second unit, as he managed to score 5 of the 9 triples he tried to reach 15 points, while Draymond Green showed his versatility once again to finish with 7 points, 14 rebounds and 8 assists.
The Raptors had six players in double digits, but most of them struggled to outrun the home defense and have consistency in adding. Pascal Siakam, with 21 points, was the leader of Nurse’s in this matter, followed by Fred VanVleet’s 17, who was not entirely fine and stayed at 6/18 in shooting. The point guard, however, starred in the closest thing to a comeback attempt by the Canadians, because with two consecutive triples he put his team down 10 in the last quarter and forced Kerr to stop the game, but after the time-out the Warriors they got the situation under control again.
(Cover photo: Mike Mulholland / Getty Images)
