Curry’s 35, Durant’s 30 factor as Warriors blaze Portland

LOS ANGELES, USA – Stephen Curry scored 35 points and Kevin Durant had 30 as the Golden State Warriors won their ninth straight home game with a 125-117 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday, January 4 (Thursday Manila time).

The Warriors helped seal the victory with a 34 second burst in the final quarter that included a Curry 3-pointer, a Shaun Livingston dunk and a Draymond Green block.

“We are on a mission to do great things this year,” said Curry. “I played a great game tonight. I have to keep doing my job and hopefully we will be in a great position at the end of the year.”

Despite not having injured star point guard Damian Lillard for the fifth straight game, the Trail Blazers were still able to make the Warriors work for the NBA victory in front of a crowd of 19,600 at Oakland’s Oracle Arena.

CJ McCollum matched Curry’s 35-point performance as the Trail Blazers closed to within 113-107 with just under five minutes to go before a turnover and missed shot prevented them from getting closer.

The Warriors pushed the lead to eight when Livingston got behind the Portland defence for a dunk with 3:43 remaining.

Then Curry drained his fifth three-pointer of the night, extending the Golden State lead to 118-107 with just 3:09 to go.

Portland never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.

Curry hit 12 of his 25 shots en route to his ninth 30-point game of the season and Durant shot 9-of-16 from the floor as Golden State shot 50.6 percent as a team. – Rappler.com