Without Dwyane Wade, the Miami Heat were never going to pose a real problem for the Golden State Warriors, winning 104-89 with a big night from Stephen Curry who put passing and dribbling aside for once, mainly focusing on his elite shooting ability.
Curry scored 32 points on 7-of-10 from beyond the arc. It’s the second time this month he has scored 32, and his biggest night form beyond the arc since November, when he made eight 3-pointers in a 114-97 win over the Miami Heat in South Beach. Eight was also the key number for the evening, as the Warriors extended their West-Best winning streak to 8 games.
The Heat were playing without Wade, out with a hamstring injury. Chris Bosh scored 26 points, got help from Luol Deng with 19 and Hassan Whiteside continues to be a surprising bright spot with another double double of 10 points and 12 rebounds, but that was it, and especially disappointing were the backcourt duo of Mario Chalmers and Shabazz Napier, hitting a combined 5-of-12 from the field to score 17 points.
Klay Thompson, as almost always, helped out with 19 points while the rest of the scoring load was shared by all. The one common thread for the Warriors in this win and the previous two is their ability to get out into the open floor and score while preventing it from their opponents. The Warriors outscored the Heat 17-4 on fast breaks and have outscored their opponents 75-10 in the last three games on the fast break.
So how does their start coorelate with playoff success? At 30-5, the Warriors are one of 18 teams to win 30 of their first 35 games. Of those 18 teams, 10 have made the NBA finals at the end of the season. All those 10 teams won the NBA title. Expectations couldn’t be any higher from Steve Kerr and his players, and every game so far they’ve been meeting those demands.
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