Curry, Thompson come through late, Warriors top Heat 118-112

Curry connected on the go-ahead 3-pointer over the outstretched arm of Miami center Hassan Whiteside with 38 seconds left, and the Golden State Warriors beat the Miami Heat 118-112 on Wednesday in a game that featured 13 lead changes in the fourth quarter alone.

Reserve point guard Josh Richardson hit three 3-pointers and went 5-of-6 from the floor overall en route to adding 15 points off the bench and Goran Dragic had 13 points and seven assists for the Heat, who got 10 rebounds from rookie Justise Winslow. That Chicago team lost ten times, and the Warriors still sit with only five losses on this season. When did he last play a regular season game without scoring a 3-pointer? “We’re holding it together, and you just keep moving forward”, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra told reporters after watching Dwyane Wade return from a two-game absence while Deng played through a dislocated finger on Monday.

Miami is looking to extend their current three-game winning streak, and are also playing in the third game of a three-game homestand.

It is the second time this season that both Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson scored 30 or more points in the same game. Magic SG Evan Fournier has topped 20 points in four of his last six games after reaching that mark just three times in his previous 37 contests2. But Wednesday in Miami, Curry made a different kind of connection.

The Warriors went to South Beach Wednesday, struggled for much of the game and still wound up drenching the Miami Heat.

Unfortunately, the earliest year for which I have play-by-play logs available in the format needed for this analysis is 96/97, preventing a comparison between the 72 win 95/96 Bulls squad which these Warriors are chasing. Minutes that had gone to Marreese Speights in the absence of an injured Festus Ezeli went instead to Varejao, who had one point and three rebounds in 10 minutes.

“I feel like we were right there”, Whiteside said.

In Indianapolis, Paul George scored 25 of his 27 points in the second half to lead the hosts over NY. Twenty-seven second later, after Wade made two free throws, Curry buried another.

A Thompson layup then staked Golden State to a 101-100 lead with 4:12 to play, with Thompson following with a 3-pointer with 3:31 left for a 104-100 Warriors lead, matching Golden State’s largest lead of the night to that stage. Al Horford scored 23 points with 16 rebounds to lead the Hawks, and also saw Dennis Schroder score 18 points with six assists.