Draymond Green tied a career-high in assists with 16 and Stephen Curry kept rolling along in Michael Jordan-type fashion en route to a decisive, showstopping victory for the Warriors on Monday night against the Cavaliers.
The two are the elder statesmen on the team now, after years of playing championship level basketball alongside one another. On Monday, a solid portion of Green’s assists contributed to field goals for the lightning hot Curry, and per NBC Sports’ Drew Shiller, Green says their collective basketball IQ is at a crazy level.
The comfortably between Curry and Green is indeed a crazy sight. It’s uncanny and rare in the modern NBA, with players switching franchises more often. Here’s the their finest example of teamwork from Monday night, courtesy of the Warriors’ official Twitter account.
Green served up a wide open 3-point shot for Curry, the best shooter in the NBA, like they were playing pickup hoops at the park against some younger dudes. Beautiful stuff. And as Green said, the attitude is spreading on the team. They were moving better without the basketball against Cleveland, with one play in particular standing out.
Here are the reserves getting into the act, earning the Play of the Game without Green or Curry on the floor, per Chase Center’s Twitter account.
Of course, the key to coach Steve Kerr’s motion offense is to free up Curry — and Klay Thompson when he’s healthy — for shots in any situation. It’s been working especially well lately, needless to say. Look at these numbers from The Golden Child in the last 10 games, per Stat Muse.
Those percentages don’t even look real. He hit an unbelievable 68 percent from the field on Monday and kept his streak of shooting better than 50 percent and scoring more than 25 points alive at 10 games. He’s one such game away from tying the great Michael Jordan’s record streak for guards.
But can the Warriors capitalize on this performance and build some momentum? Their record sits at 15-13, good for eighth place in the Western Conference, and they’ve yet to earn a three-game win streak. The Heat come to San Francisco on Wednesday to close four straight home games, and a win would give Golden State a 3-1 record during the homestand.
Here are the rest of the team’s stats from Monday, thanks to the Warriors Twitter account. We’ll see if the Warriors’ boxscore looks as rosy on Wednesday, in particular for Curry, as he looks to tie Jordan’s record.
(Photo credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)
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