OAKLAND — Tuesday was supposed to be a contested matchup between the Warriors and a seriously improved Utah Jazz team.
Instead, Golden State walloped another inferior opponent 104-74 at Oracle Arena. Utah lacks the star power and athleticism to keep up with the Warriors’ frantic pace.
The Warriors turned a lethargic first quarter (7/26 shooting) into a full-fledged blowout, featuring ridiculous shots from Steph Curry, lock-down defense from Klay Thompson, lobbed dunks from JaVale McGee and another questionable technical foul call on Draymond Green.
Curry scored 25 points and went 4/9 from downtown. Kevin Durant added 22 points, and once again, shot over 50 percent from the floor 8/14. Thompson wasn’t exactly on fire offensively (17 points on 8/13 shooting) but he wrapped a straitjacket around Gordon Hayward. Utah’s lone star player was held to just 6 points on 2/10 shooting with Thompson harassing his every move. Woof.
McGee led the bench in scoring with 8 points and grabbed 7 rebounds — most of those numbers were before garbage time, too. It was notable Kerr played him against a very respectable Jazz team because McGee saw just 4 minutes against the Clippers on Dec. 7. The center finished a perfectly placed Alley-oop from Green in the third quarter but also provided hustle plays on defense that led to transition buckets. His presence will be interesting to monitor on Christmas Day against Cleveland. The blowout became so large, Anderson Varejao saw extended garbage time minutes in the fourth quarter.
Green (15 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists) was whistled for a technical foul in the second quarter, which spawned an irate reaction from Steve Kerr. The violation — seen in the highlight below — was for Green dunking and apparently held onto the rim too long. The call also didn’t become clear for a minute after the basket was made. Kerr had to be restrained by assistant coach Mike Brown.
Are NBA officials targeting Green for past behavior? That conversation is likely a private one the Warriors are having with the league office.
Draymond Green just received a technical foul for hanging on the rim and Steve Kerr was none too pleased about it pic.twitter.com/pNgO7f8ewx
— KNBR (@KNBR) December 21, 2016
The first quarter actually had fans laughing. Neither team scored in the first four minutes of action and a timeout was called with a 0-0 tie. When Curry hit the first free throw of the game, the crowd mockingly roared with approval. Golden State led just 19-15 at the end of one, and this looked like it was going to be a defensive slugfest.
The Warriors will play a back-to-back Thursday and Friday on the road in Brooklyn and Detroit before taking on LeBron James this Sunday.
