Stephen Curry hit his first seven 3-point attempts on a 42-point night, Jonathan Kuminga chipped in with 18 points and the Golden State Warriors closed out an impressive trip with a second win in two nights, thumping the Indiana Pacers 131-109 in Indianapolis on Thursday.
Playing for the fifth time in seven days while opting to rest veteran Klay Thompson, Golden State beat the Pacers at their own game, running up 45 points in the first quarter and holding the hosts at arm’s length the rest of the way.
Curry was 6-for-6 on 3-pointers in the first-quarter blitz, which allowed the Warriors to take an 11-point lead en route to finishing their trek through the East and Midwest with a third straight win and fourth triumph in the five games.
Performing on the same court as he will in his 3-point shootout against WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu on All-Star Saturday, Curry finished 11-for-16 on 3-pointers, equaling the third-most of his career.
Along the way, he became the first Warriors player to score 40 or more points in a game at Indiana.
Curry shot 15-for-22 overall and Kuminga was 9-for-16, helping the visitors make 55.9 of their total shots. They were 17-for-32 (53.1 percent) on 3-pointers.
Rookie forward Gui Santos gave Golden State a boost off the bench with 13 points and eight rebounds, both season bests, while Andrew Wiggins and Dario Saric contributed 11 points apiece.
Brandin Podziemski and Draymond Green aided the Golden State cause with productive all-around games, Podziemski with nine points, seven rebounds and a team-high seven assists in Thompson’s starting spot. Green collected eight points, eight rebounds and five assists. Both also had two steals.
Pascal Siakam paced six Pacers in double figures with 16 points to complement eight rebounds, tying Santos and Green for game-high honors. But one of the six with 10 or more points wasn’t All-Star Tyrese Haliburton, who had a game-high 11 assists but just five points on 2-for-7 shooting.
Myles Turner had 15 points, Jalen Smith 14, Aaron Nesmith 13, Bennedict Mathurin 11 and Andrew Nembhard 10 for Indiana, which saw a two-game winning streak come to an end. Nesmith also found time for five steals.
–Field Level Media