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Splash Brothers lead Golden State Warriors to 130-102 rout of Utah Jazz

A dominant home win in which Steph Curry added another milestone to his resume and Klay Thompson was about as confident as he has ever been.

By Nate P.
Photo by Kyle Terada.

Bob Fitzgerald asked during the second quarter of tonight's game whether there's a backcourt in the NBA right now playing better than Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and it was hardly a misplaced comment given the way they played tonight.

The Splash Brothers shot a scorching hot 16-for-25 in the first half to eventually cruise to a 130-102 rout of a feisty Utah Jazz team at Oracle Arena tonight.

Key statistic: Splash Brothers combine to shoot 60.5%

Curry had 11 of his career-high-tying/game-high 16 assists in the first half and finished with 31 points while Klay Thompson nabbed game-high scoring honors with 33 points including 7-for-10 3-point shooting.

As we head into the playoffs, this is probably something closer to what many imagined from this team this season, #FullSquad or not, even if it's almost too surreal to expect them to repeat with any sort of frequency; when the team keeps its spacing and moves the ball, there are few backcourts in recent memory that can compete with Curry and Thompson when they're knocking down threes like that.

Those that have matched that level of production this season are more often either meh or no longer even a thing.

Anyway, given the way the Warriors have played this season - and the fact that David Lee was out once again - it's both tempting to wonder whether the team is turning a corner and almost impossible to consider the possibility for more than a few seconds; I'm pretty much done trying to find signs of anything sustainable from this year's team and just hoping they can string together a few weeks of hot play in the postseason. Yet regardless of whether we'll eventually look back on this game and take anything from it, it's just gratifying to see the Warriors come out and do what they're supposed to do: beat down a team that has been looking forward to the lottery (and another one of our first round picks) all season.

Nothing to brag about, but a relief after some painfully disappointing games this season.

For a time, Utah did make this game interesting with a spectacular 13-0 run (in the context of a mediocre season) led by Alec Burks and some poor decision/execution from Golden State; for some reason, the Jazz were down by just five points with 8:13 left in the second half. Yet after that, it was nice to see someone else victimized by turnovers and poor play: Utah had four turnovers over a six minute stretch, which allowed the Warriors to re-establish a 14-point lead that they would continue to build upon in the second half.

Warrior Wonder: Stephen Curry

Gsom-ww-curry_medium

After Golden State survived Utah's little run in the second quarter, Curry just looked unstoppable as both a distributor and scorer as he helped orchestrate the process of the Warriors pulling away from the Jazz.

In just under 20 minutes spanning the second and third quarters, Curry had 15 points on 7-for-12 shooting, 10 assists, and 3 steals. Surely there are some who will have noticed a few careless turnovers in that span alone - he had three - when he started to get drawn into the flow of the game and maybe had a little too much fun, but it was the type of performance that one might hope would not only put to bed the doubts about whether this man is a point guard but also maybe get some of the most vocal doubters to recant.

Looking at the big picture, the Warriors edged a bit closer to the playoffs in a tight Western Conference race and created a bit more room between them the bottom of the field.

For now, the team gets three days off and we get to enjoy this one a little.

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