SAN FRANCISCO — There’s not one player who can fill the void left by Stephen Curry’s absence.
A strong showing from top-to-bottom by the Warriors did the trick Monday night as Golden State rolled to a 141-114 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Klay Thompson scored 42 points and knocked down 12 3s, Jordan Poole tallied a career-high 12 assists to go with his 21 points, and the Warriors recorded their second straight win to improve to 28-26 on the season.
The play that best summarized the game took place in the fourth quarter when Poole went coast-to-coast before pushing the ball out to Thompson, who knocked down his 11th 3-pointer of the night.
The two received a loud standing ovation from the home crowd when they checked out of the game with less than five minutes remaining in the game.
Thompson missed his first basket before making his next seven. He had 27 points by the half, benefitting often by Poole’s impressive passing.
Before the game, coach Steve Kerr said the Warriors need Poole to play within his game.
“I just need him – we don’t need anything special,” Kerr said. “We just need him to be solid and to play his game and he’s obviously gonna play more minutes and he’ll be at the point more often. So he’s got to run the team and get us into our sets and just be solid.”
That’s exactly what Poole did.
Poole recorded his first double-double of the season. He scored 16 of his points in the second half, including a 13-point burst in the third.
The Warriors overcame an eight-point deficit in the first half to take a seven-point lead at the break. They put the game away in the third, outscoring the Thunder 44-26.
This was a good start for the Warriors, who will be without Curry for the foreseeable future.
Curry injured his leg following a collision with Mavericks guard McKinley Wright IV late in the third quarter of the Warriors’ win against Dallas on Saturday night. An MRI revealed partial tears to his superior tibiofibular ligaments — a joint that connects the tibia and fibula — and interosseous membrane as well as a bruise to his lower leg. He’s expected to miss a couple of weeks, though an official timeline by the team hasn’t been unveiled.
The Warriors will travel to Portland to play the Trail Blazers on Wednesday.
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