SAN FRANCISCO — Chase Center has hosted Grammy-winning recording artists since reopening to full capacity, but none of them put on the show that Stephen Curry treated a sold-out crowd to in the Golden State Warriors’ home opener Thursday night.
Curry scored 45 after connecting on his first 10 attempts from the field and dropping 25 points in the first quarter, yet the Warriors still needed his fourth-quarter theatrics to prevail over the Los Angeles Clippers, 115-113. Curry nailed a a catch-and-shoot jumper with under a minute left to give Golden State the lead for good.
Here are some quick takeaways.
—Big Wiggs
Andrew Wiggins was the first to eschew his poor shooting through the preseason.
The former No. 1 overall pick insisted he’d find his rhythm once the games began to count, and he wasn’t wrong. A sore knee sidelined him for part of the preseason. He finished the exhibition slate having made only 4 of his 18 3-point attempts.
Those struggles have vanished through his first two regular-season contests.
Wiggins needed less than 4 minutes to enter double figures Thursday night after connecting on his first three attempts from downtown. In the season opener Tuesday, Wiggins quietly contributed 12 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field.
Wiggins finished with 17 on Thursday and took on the tough assignment of guarding Clippers star Paul George.
He scored 9 of Golden State’s first 12 points.
Then Curry took over.
—A perfect quarter
Curry pumped his fist and let out a roar after the Clippers took their second timeout. He just pulled up in the lane for his 17th and 18th points of the opening period. He wasn’t done.
Curry finished the quarter with 25 points, the 35th time in his career that he’d eclipsed 20 points in a single period, tying his personal best for a quarter. He finished the game with 45 points on 16-of-25 shooting, including 8 of 13 from deep, to pair with 10 rebounds.
But more impressive than the scoring total was how he got them.
Curry didn’t miss a shot until 4:55 left in the second quarter, a heat check from 28 feet that clanked off the rim. He connected on his first 10 shots, including five from beyond the arc.
Everything was going right for the Warriors.
Curry couldn’t miss, and few of his teammates were, either.
But around the time of Curry’s first misfire, the tides began to change. Golden State only scored one more basket the rest of the half and watched a double-digit advantage evaporate.
—Where’s the D?
The Warriors built a lead as large as 19 points but let it slip away entirely by intermission, as Paul George nearly matched Curry’s magnificence.
The Clippers superstar needed only 12 shots to drop 22 points in the first half, while Curry was limited to 3 more before half after his 25-point first quarter.
While Golden State shot 61.5% (24-of-39) from the field in the first half, Los Angeles went 25-of-45 (55.6%).
Things cooled down in the second half, but not by much.
Despite barely being able to miss, the Warriors entered the final period still in need of a minor comeback effort.
The Warriors forced an average of 13.4 steals per game in the preseason and swiped the ball from the Los Angeles Lakers nine times in their season opener but were only able to get their hands on five steals Thursday night.
After allowing the Lakers to shoot 47% from the field, the Warriors followed it up by allowing the Clippers to connect on 44% of their attempts.
The D showed up when it counted, though, as Wiggins and Green trapped George in the corner with under 30 seconds to play and forced a brick that sealed the win.
—And 1
With six points, Nemanja Bjelica reached 3,000 in his career.
Damion Lee celebrated his 29th birthday Thursday. After attending a J Cole concert the night before, he dropped 11 points off the bench, including a consecutive corner 3s that put Golden State up 102-98 with less than 5 minutes to play.
The Warriors welcomed their 378th straight sellout crowd. It had been 590 days since their last regular-season game at full capacity, March 10, 2020.
Golden State became the second team in NBA history to begin its season by defeating both Los Angeles teams. The 2000 Utah Jazz were the only other team to accomplish the somewhat obscure feat.
