Stephen Curry’s Warriors Are 22-0 after beating Brooklyn Nets 114-98 #NBA #Basketball

NBA schedule and results: Warriors move to 22-0, John Wall injured

Golden State pulled away after absorbing a challenge from the Nets for three quarters, while the Wizards may have suffered a crushing blow.

Stephen Curry cruised around the Barclays Center court early Sunday night, working through his pregame warm-up routine at a laid-back pace, with a constellation of cameras and cellular phones tilting and turning to track his every move.

Even Yankees pitcher C. C. Sabathia, who was sitting along the baseline wearing a Golden State Warriors cap, could not resist pulling out his phone to snap a few pictures.

All around the country, this has become the norm. Before the game, Luke Walton, the interim coach of the Warriors, compared his team’s current seven-game trip to a traveling circus.

“It’s crazy everywhere we’re going right now,” Walton said before the Warriors beat the Nets, 114-98, to improve their record this season to 22-0. “It’s entertaining. People want to watch these guys play. I would, too, as a basketball fan.”

Curry, who scored 28 points after getting off to a relatively slow start, has been the ringleader. Everywhere he went in the arena, he attracted a flock of people — fans, reporters, defenders — with his gravitational pull.

There was a collective shriek from the stands when Curry’s name was announced in the pregame introductions. When he walked onto the court before tipoff, mouthpiece dangling out of the side of his mouth, the cheers bubbled up again. Four and a half minutes into the game, fans whooped when the ball was still leaving Curry’s fingers on his first 3-point attempt, and they grew louder when it splashed through the net.

The Nets, who dropped to 5-15, have had mercurial support at home over the years. Playoff games have drawn energized crowds. Just as often, visiting teams and players have filched the attention and adoration.

There was a lot for Warriors fans to cheer Sunday, as the players cascaded down the floor in irresistible waves. They swarmed on defense, too, waving their arms, blurring the Nets’ vision. The Warriors missed nine free throws in the opening period and still finished it leading, 30-16.

But the Nets — who remain the only team to force overtime against the Warriors, on Nov. 14 — fought back. Against the odds, they won the affection of the crowd, if only for a portion of the night. Just before halftime, they went on a 12-0 run to cut the Warriors’ lead to 57-54 before the intermission. They then scored the first 4 points of the second half to get their first lead of the game.

“We went small, and they went small with us, and we were able to make huge headway,” Nets Coach Lionel Hollins said of his team’s lineup.

Yet the play of Curry and the Warriors — who have won 26 straight regular-season games dating to last season — has had a feeling of inevitability. Curry scored 16 points in the third quarter and helped re-establish Golden State’s dominance.

With 2:10 left in the period, Curry hit a bank shot to tie the score. Soon after, he drained a 3-pointer to put the Warriors ahead. Less than a minute later, as Festus Ezeli sneaked behind the Nets’ defense, Curry tossed a parabolic lob toward the basket, where Ezeli caught the ball and smashed it through the rim. Thirty seconds later, Curry bounced to the hoop for a layup and 3-point play. Twenty-six seconds after that, he drained a 3-pointer off the dribble and skipped back to the bench wagging his tongue.

The Warriors finished the third quarter leading, 87-80, and they never looked back.

“Some nights you might not shoot the ball well for 34, 36 minutes, what have you, but if you just stick with the process of how we play, and how we’re going to get our shots, and not deviate from that, eventually we’re all going to click,” Curry said.

Draymond Green contributed 22 points and 9 rebounds. Klay Thompson added 21 points.

The Nets lost to the Knicks on Friday night, giving up 42 points in the first quarter alone. Hollins afterward deemed the game “a nightmare.” He was not much happier Sunday.

“Well, we got off to another dastardly start,” he said.

Thaddeus Young led the Nets with 25 points and 14 rebounds. The Nets shot 43.8 percent as a team, compared to 51.2 percent for the Warriors.

All the fight the Nets showed from the second to third quarters was gone in the fourth, when the Warriors’ second unit ended the game with a burst of energy. Curry watched most of the quarter from the bench. When Leandro Barbosa hit a 3-pointer midway through the period, Curry hopped up and down on one leg, waving his arms up and down like a pair of scissors, with a towel draped over his eyes. It was a lighthearted end to another entertaining evening in the Warriors’ circus, which showed no signs of slowing.