SACRAMENTO -– From hideous beginnings can come beautiful endings for these Warriors if only because having Stephen Curry on the floor makes it almost predictable.
Proving that annoying bruise on his left leg is not nearly enough to slow him, Curry went out Saturday night and stoned the Sacramento Kings, scoring 38 points, 14 in the closeout fourth quarter, in a 128-116 victory at Sleep Train Arena.
Merely very good over the past week, Curry was nothing less than sensational.
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“I’m glad he’s on our team,” interim coach Luke Walton said of the reigning MVP. “He’s pretty impressive.”
[POOLE: Instant Replay: Warriors rain threes in win over Kings]
Curry was 12-of-21 from the floor, including 8-of-14 from 3-point distance. He added a team-high 11 assists. And when the Kings rallied in the fourth, Curry silenced them with seven sizzling minutes: 5-of-6 shooting, 3-of-3 from deep – including two treys inside the final 52 seconds.
What bruise?
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“I felt good,” Curry said, dismissing his aches. “When I’m out there on the floor, I usually feel like I can play without being limited.
“That’s my mindset. I’m not really trying to highlight that stuff as you go through the season. You want to just go out and play and deal with the recovery and rehab in between games, like every NBA athlete has to do.”
Said center Andrew Bogut “He’s been banged up. He’s playing through injuries. He’s been in and out of the lineup a couple times and he’s finding his rhythm back. But we haven’t really noticed a huge drop-off.”
Indeed, it’s not that Curry was playing poorly. After missing two games on the road trip at end of the calendar year, he averaged 19.5 points on 48.3-percent shooting, including 41.2 percent from deep. Those numbers climbed after Saturday night.
And for a while, it appeared the numbers would be absolutely necessary for the Warriors (35-2) to get past a team they’d beaten 11 times in a row. They had to overcome the worst of themselves, notably 11 turnovers in the first 15 minutes.
“It was ugly,” said Bogut.
“To be up two was amazing,” said Draymond Green, referring to a 60-58 edge at the half. “We definitely have to cut down on the turnovers. We were really sloppy, especially to start the game.”
They found themselves in the third quarter by scorching the nets at 68.2 percent. Every Warrior who set foot on the floor in that quarter made at least half his shots – except Curry, who missed two of the three he fired up.
“We did a better job of engaging in the game,” Walton said. “The first quarter we were turning the ball over, just awful turnovers like not even forced, just throwing it away.”
With Klay Thompson (17 points) and Green (25 points, 11 rebounds) doing work, along with Andre Iguodala and Harrison Barnes combining for 23 points off the bench, the Warriors entered the fourth quarter with a 12-point lead.
But the Kings (15-22) did not back off. They got as close as five (118-113) with 2:59 to play before Barnes and Iguodala tossed in a basket and Curry fired up the punctuating 3-pointers.
“He looked like he had more of a rhythm going tonight,” Walton said of Curry. “I think all of the injuries and kept getting kicked is kind of throwing him off a little bit. He’s obviously still playing at a MVP level but it just looked like he had a nice little bounce and rhythm to his game out there tonight.”
Curry blamed himself for the poor start, saying he set a negative tone by throwing an improvised alley-oop coming out of a huddle.
“I turned the ball over, and it’s kind of contagious when you start the game like that because you backpedal instead of being on the attack,” Curry said. “We finally got it under control and got back to who we are.”
They got back just fine, with their sixth consecutive win, behind the point guard who delivered an All-Star performance.