Kevin Durant had the best shooting night of his career on Wednesday to help the Golden State Warriors take the outright Western Conference lead.
Durant and Stephen Curry each scored 28 points, with Durant going 12 of 13 from beyond the arc, as the Golden State Warriors defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 118-103.
Curry also had 10 rebounds, while DeMarcus Cousins added 16 points and nine rebounds. The Warriors broke a tie with idle Denver for the top spot in the West.
“We’re not looking at it. Obviously, it’s something, coming down the stretch of the season, you want to know what the matchups are looking like,” said Durant, who was unaware they regained first place.
“Each game is important from top to bottom. From the eighth seed to the top, so you are going to take a peek at it, but you are not really writing it on a whiteboard or looking at it,” he said.
Jonas Valanciunas led Memphis with 27 points and 13 rebounds, while Mike Conley added 22 points to take the franchise’s career scoring lead and added eight assists. Bruno Caboclo had 17 points and 13 rebounds.
The pace of the game finally caught up with the Grizzlies, contributing to fatigue in the fourth, Conley said.
“They’re a team that moves so well without the ball,” Conley said about Golden State. “They’ve got so many weapons and just push the tempo. Eventually, it gets into your legs a little bit.”
Memphis had made life tough on visiting playoff teams fighting for seeding in the West. Earlier this month, the Grizzlies recorded home wins over Portland, Utah Houston and Oklahoma City.
At times, they were close to adding Golden State to the list until a bad fourth quarter. Memphis shot 24 percent in the final frame, making only two of 12 shots from three-point range.
Durant scored seven straight points in a 9-0 run that made it 100-92 midway through the fourth quarter, part of Golden State pulling away at the end, outscoring Memphis 29-19 in the fourth.
“He was picking and choosing his spots early on, facilitating,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said about Durant. “And then, when we needed him the most, he just took the game over offensively and got buckets for us. So, it was a great night for him, and we needed it. That was a tough game.”
In other games on Wednesday, the Portland Trail Blazers crushed the Chicago Bulls 118-98, the Oklahoma City Thunder overpowered the Indiana Pacers 107-99, the Washington Wizards edged the Phoenix Suns 124-121 and the Utah Jazz defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 115-100.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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