Warriors still on record pace
PHOENIX — The Golden State-Phoenix mismatch wasn’t the blowout most expected, just another routine Warriors victory.
Stephen Curry nearly had a triple-double before sitting out the fourth quarter, and the Warriors stormed into the All-Star break on an 11-game winning streak with a 112-104 victory over the free-falling Suns on Wednesday night.
“It wasn’t our best effort but I told them before the game keep the turnovers down, just be solid and we should be fine,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “For the most part, we did a good job of taking care of the ball. Thirteen turnovers is a pretty good number for us. We didn’t do much else that well but it was enough.”
Curry had 26 points, nine rebounds and nine assists for the defending NBA champions. At 48-4, the Warriors enter the break with the best record through 52 games in NBA history, one win better than the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls and 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers. Those Bulls finished the season with a league-record 72 wins.
Kerr called his team’s record “shocking.”
“Nobody has ever done it, right?” he said. “Fifty-two games in to have only lost four games is remarkable. It speaks to the talent and chemistry of the players. We have a deep roster and they love playing together, they enjoy winning and they are good at it.”
Klay Thompson added 24 points for Golden State. He called those 52 games “kind of a blur.”
“It has gone by really fast,” he said. “Winning obviously helps that but we couldn’t have asked for a better pre-All-Star break performance. We still have some room for improvement, believe it or not, but it is really surreal to be 48-4.”
Curry called the 48-4 record “pretty satisfying.”
“We handled a lot of different challenges pretty well this first half of the season,” he said.
Archie Goodwin scored 20 points and Markieff Morris 19 for the Suns, who have lost nine straight and 24 of 26. Rookie guard Devin Booker added 15 points and a career-best 10 assists.
Goodwin and Morris emerged the team’s leading scorers after scuffling on the bench during a first-quarter timeout.
