Klay Thompson scored a game-high 25 points as the Golden State Warriors posted their fifth straight victory over the shorthanded New York Knicks with a 103-90 win on Thursday.
JaVale McGee made the most of a rare start by tallying 17 points for the Warriors, who improved to a league best 23-4 with the win.
The Warriors remarkably recorded assists on every basket until the streak was broken late in the third period by a driving hoop by reserve guard Ian Clark.
Photo: AFP
The 41 total assists gave Golden State at least 30 in 19 of their 27 games this season. No other NBA team has reached 30 more than four times.
“We had great flow and trust in each other,” Thompson said.
Kevin Durant finished just shy of a triple-double with 15 points and a game-high 14 rebounds to go with eight assists. Draymond Green grabbed 11 rebounds and had five points, while Stephen Curry finished with a season-low eight points and eight assists.
The Knicks were missing stars Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose to injury.
Reserves Justin Holiday (15) and Ron Baker (13) were the leading scorers for the Knicks, who fell to 2-2 on a five-game western swing.
Anthony and Rose are both questionable for the trip finale in Denver today.
Elsewhere, Kawhi Leonard and Pau Gasol scored 18 points apiece as the San Antonio Spurs used a 21-3 run in the fourth quarter to put away the Phoenix Suns 107-92.
LaMarcus Aldridge added 14 points and seven rebounds for San Antonio, who have won 14 of 15 road games this season.
The Spurs had not played on the road since absorbing their lone loss, 95-91 against the Chicago Bulls on Thursday last week.
Leonard and Gasol grabbed 10 and nine rebounds respectively.
Devin Booker had 17 points and Eric Bledsoe added 14 for Phoenix, who hung with San Antonio for three quarters before falling victim to the decisive run.
“We have such a deep group; we don’t play our guys a lot of minutes so we’re able to sustain our effort for the whole game,” Gasol said. “When teams ramp it up and make their runs, and even get ahead, it’s hard for them to sustain that. Our second halves and our fourth quarters are strong because we keep coming until we break the game open.”
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