Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins hope to pick up where they left off 48 hours earlier when the Warriors face the Indiana Pacers on Thursday night in San Francisco.
In just the trio’s second home game together since Thompson returned from a 2 1/2-year absence, the Warriors rode a combined 58 points on 20-for-37 shooting from their three top offensive forces in a 102-86 thumping of the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday.
The Warriors had 20 assists in the first half alone as Curry, Thompson and Wiggins took turns feeding each other during a 66-38 blitz.
“I am really enjoying playing with Andrew. The stuff that he does on the basketball court, you can’t really teach,” Thompson said of a teammate with whom he hadn’t played until returning from ACL and Achilles tears on Jan. 9.
“Obviously, Steph is self-explanatory,” Thompson continued. “I am just so happy to be on the court with him again. We play off of each other so well. … I think that we can form a pretty amazing trio.”
The Warriors are looking to find a new gear on a seven-game homestand that began with the Detroit game. They will host the Houston Rockets on the second night of a back-to-back on Friday.
Tuesday’s win was just their third in the past eight games, although it did improve their record at home against Eastern Conference competition to 9-0 this season.
The Pacers have never lost in the Warriors’ new Chase Center, having taken advantage of Thompson’s absence to win there in each of the past two seasons. They are one of six visitors who remain unbeaten in the new venue.
If Indiana is going to make it three straight, it will have to do so on the second night of its own back-to-back, one that started off with a bang on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Lakers.
Domantas Sabonis outdueled LeBron James with a 20-point, 12-rebound, 10-assist triple-double in a 111-104, come-from-behind road win. Afterward, Sabonis tipped his cap to teammate Caris LeVert, whose 22 fourth-quarter points allowed the Pacers to complete a comeback from a 15-point deficit.
“He made all the right reads. He was efficient,” Sabonis said of LeVert. “That’s a big-time player. He’s our scorer and we need him.”
The Pacers played a second consecutive game without Myles Turner, who sustained a stress reaction in his left foot last week and is expected to miss at least a month. Turner leads the NBA in blocks at 2.8 per game.
The clubs went down to the wire in a December meeting in Indianapolis. Kevon Looney grabbed a loose ball and laid it in with 13.4 seconds remaining to break a tie and give Golden State a 102-100 win.
Gary Payton II, inserted into the game on the final possession for defensive purposes, helped preserve the narrow victory by harassing LeVert into dribbling the ball out of bounds on a drive to the hoop with 2.2 seconds left that could have tied the game.
Sabonis had 30 points and 11 rebounds while Malcolm Brogdon added 23 points in the loss. Curry led the Warriors with 26 points.
