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Make that 22 straight: Warriors rout Nets, 114-98

By Anthony Puccio

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Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

BROOKLYN, N.Y. -- What can you even say?

The Warriors won their 22nd straight game and routed the Nets, 114-98, at Barclays Center with Mikhail Prokhorov looking on. While the Warriors are at the top of the league looking down, the Nets are close to the bottom looking up with a 5-15 record.

The Warriors started the game on a 9-0 run and, well, it was a sad reminder of Friday vs. the Knicks.

Brook Lopez was barely active due to foul trouble. No matter, because the Warriors were swarming the Nets every time they touched the ball, thus leading to six Nets turnovers and a 14-point deficit by quarters end.

The game looked lost, but the Nets kept fighting.

They scored a season-high 38 points in the second quarter, hitting on 14 of the 18 shots attempted and finished the half on a 12-0 run. Suddenly, the deficit was down to three heading into the second half. Thaddeus Young scored 10 of his  25 points in the quarter.

The Nets and Warriors exchanged buckets in the third, but Steph Curry scored six points in the last 27 seconds and put Golden State up seven. He scored 16 total in the third. He is a bad, bad man.

Shane Larkin was a difference maker in the quarter. He nailed five of his nine shots attempted and scored 13 points, while pestering Stephen Curry throughout. He tied a season-high for steals with three of the four swiped from Curry's pockets.

The Warriors went on a 17-4 run to start the fourth with Curry AND Thompson on the bench. The Nets seven-point deficit suddenly inflated to 17, midway through the fourth quarter. They went scoreless over a 5-minute span.

"You see glimpses, it's just we got to keep going," Lopez said after the game. "We've got to make those glimpses, turn them into consistencies in our identity."

Steph Curry nailed five of the Warriors' 13 made threes.  He scored 28 points on 11-of-17 shooting. His counterpart, Klay Thompson, chipped in 21 while Draymond Green put home 22 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.

The Nets as a whole hit just as many threes as Stephen Curry. I'm not sure if that's an insult to Brooklyn or a compliment to Steph.

"That's what great players can do," Lionel Hollins said of Curry. "Plus he has a great team. He doesn't have to go out there and do it all of the time. Last night he had 44, two nights ago in Charlotte he had 40. When he needs to, he can, and when he doesn't need to, he takes a back seat to those other guys."

Thaddeus Young led the way for Brooklyn with 25 points and a season-high 14 rebounds on 11-of-19 shooting. He's absolutely torched Draymond Green and the Warriors this season.

Meanwhile, Brook Lopez finished with 18 points and eight rebounds despite playing just 11 minutes in the first half due to foul trouble. Other than Shane Larkin and Markel Brown (seven points), the Nets bench was nonexistent compared to Golden State's.

They were down big against the NBA's best. They fought back. They fell short. You really can't fault them too much.

As an old friend of ours would say, "We battled."

For more on the Golden State Warriors, check them out at Golden State Of Mind.

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