SO much for Stephen Curry’s mini-shooting slump. Curry scored 40 points on 11-of-18 shooting as the Golden State Warriors beat the Miami Heat 114-97 on Tuesday for their sixth consecutive victory.
“You just feel a rhythm,” said Curry, who was 8 for 24 in his previous two games. “You start finding shots and it feels good. Even the ones I missed terribly felt good, which is pretty funny.”
Klay Thompson had 24 points for the Warriors, who shot 57 per cent. Curry finished eight of 11 from three-point range.
“You win games all sorts of ways with different individual performances,” Curry said. “How we shot last game had nothing to do with this game.”
Golden State scored 14 straight points to open a 107-95 lead with 2:50 to go. Curry and Thompson capped the run with consecutive three-pointers.
Chris Bosh scored 26 points for Miami, and Luol Deng had 16. James Ennis’ dunk with 9:11 left was the Heat’s last field goal.
“They played their best basketball in the fourth quarter,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “We got caught up in some tough possessions. Their defence really stepped up and then they started to score and we just weren’t able to sustain from there.”
Miami led by 16 in the first half but Golden State closed the second quarter with a 23-8 surge. Draymond Green made two free throws with 9.8 seconds left to cut the Heat’s lead to 62-61 at the break.
Golden state carried the momentum over to the second half.
Harrison Barnes finished with 12 points and Andrew Bogut had 10 rebounds for the Warriors. Bogut started after sustaining a right orbital bone contusion on Sunday.
At Denver, Ty Lawson scored 20 points, including a key jumper in the waning seconds, as the Nuggets beat the Bulls 114-109 for their fifth straight win.
Arron Afflalo added 19 points and Danilo Gallinari had 15 for the Nuggets, who defeated the Bulls for the eighth straight time in Denver.
Bulls point guard Derrick Rose was limited to 10 minutes in his second game back from a left hamstring strain. Rose, who scored 18 points in his return on Monday against Utah after a four-game absence, felt tightness in the hamstring during the first quarter and didn’t play the rest of the way.
Jimmy Butler had 32 points for Chicago, and Pau Gasol finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds.
The Hawks had a 106-102 win over the Wizards, with reserves Mike Scott and Shelvin Mack leading a fourth-quarter surge.
Scott and Mack scored Atlanta’s first 16 points of the final period, sparking a 22-5 run that built a 14-point lead before the Wizards hit a spate of three-pointers to make the final score close. Scott finished with 17 points in 23 minutes, and Mack had 13 in 19 for the Hawks, who have won six of eight.
The Kings recorded their third straight win with a 99-89 win over the Pelicans, while the Bucks beat the Pistons 98-86. AP