Stephen Curry on Monday endured his worst shooting night of the young season, but his Golden State Warriors still notched their eighth straight win — 109-95 over the Detroit Pistons.
The reigning NBA champions are the league’s only remaining unbeaten team, their 8-0 record just one shy of the club’s best start — a 9-0 run to open the 1960-1961 campaign, when the Warriors were based in Philadelphia.
Curry connected on just seven of 18 shots, finishing with 22 points — 12 short of his season average.
Photo: AP
The Warriors held a slim 80-76 lead when reserve forward Andre Iguodala sparked a Golden State spurt with a dunk.
Backup guard Leandro Barbosa and forward Harrison Barnes combined for 12 points in a 18-6 scoring run that saw the Warriors pull away.
The Warriors were buoyed by the return of Australian Andrew Bogut, playing his first game since suffering a concussion in the season opener on Oct. 27.
Bogut scored eight points and pulled down 11 rebounds, combining with center Festus Ezeli to harry and hinder Pistons center Andre Drummond all night.
“You have to give up stats for yourself,” Bogut said of sharing the task of defending Drummond, who was held to 14 points and 15 rebounds a night after scoring 29 with 27 rebounds against Portland.
The Warriors have a chance to improve to 9-0 today when they visit the Memphis Grizzlies, who were edged 94-92 by the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday.
Forward Blake Griffin led the Clippers with 24 points and 12 rebounds, while J.J. Redick had 16 points as Los Angeles held on in a frantic finish to end a two-game skid.
Point guard Chris Paul returned after missing Saturday’s loss to the Houston Rockets with a sore right groin, scoring 14 points.
A three-pointer by former Clippers forward Matt Barnes and a follow of a Barnes miss by Memphis point guard Mike Conley gave the Grizzlies a brief 81-80 lead with 4 minutes, 11 seconds left to play.
It was the first of a string of lead changes, with Griffin’s basket lifting the Clippers to a one-point lead less than a minute later.
Memphis had gone up by two when Redick’s three-pointer put the Clippers up again 87-86 with 55 seconds left.
Conley missed a three-pointer and Redick was fouled on a three-point attempt — making all three free throws to stretch the Los Angeles lead to 90-86.
Paul fouled Barnes on a three-pointer on the next possession and Barnes made all three free throws to again pull Memphis within a point with eight seconds left.
That was as close as the Grizzlies got as the teams traded fouls and free throws until the buzzer.
Emmanuel Mudiay, Denver’s 19-year-old rookie from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, scored a season-high 18 points and produced two key blocks in the final minutes to help the Nuggets hang on for a 108-104 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers.
“Emmanuel Mudiay, I think he grew up tonight,” Denver coach Michael Malone said of Mudiay, who opted to hone his skills in China rather than a US college before entering the NBA this season. “It has not been easy for him. I have been on him, but tonight I thought his growth in the fourth quarter of a close game, making the big plays that he made, having two big blocks [was impressive].”
Canadian guard Andrew Wiggins scored 33 points, including eight in the finishing stretch, as the Minnesota Timberwolves turned back an Atlanta rally for a 117-107 victory over the Hawks.
Minnesota were on the ropes after squandering a 34-point lead.
Atlanta took a 107-106 lead on a basket by forward Paul Millsap, but Wiggins — last season’s rookie of the year — converted a three-point play with three minutes remaining and Minnesota pulled away from there.
In other games, it was:
‧ Bulls 111, 76ers 88
‧ Spurs 106, Kings 88
‧ Pacers 97, Magic 84
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB