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Durant’s triple-double powers short-handed Warriors past Hornets

By

Kerry Crowley

/

No Steph Curry. No Draymond Green. No Patrick McCaw. No Zaza Pachulia.

If the Charlotte Hornets read their scouting reports earlier this week and looked up in the middle of the first quarter on Wednesday night, they would probably would have felt like the student who studied the wrong chapter before a test. Golden State head coach Steve Kerr never hesitates to rest his players, but with injuries ailing three of the team’s starters and one of its key reserves, the Warriors shouldn’t have looked like the same team.

Somehow, they did.

Even though Kerr was forced to replace two All-Stars in the starting lineup and lost his top center to a shoulder injury early in the first quarter, the Warriors opened up a 15-point halftime lead and rolled to their fifth straight win with a 101-87 victory.

Though Golden State’s revised lineup looked like Kerr picked names out of a hat, Charlotte still had one major problem on its hands that the Hornets couldn’t quite sting: Kevin Durant.

With Curry sidelined for at least the next two weeks due to a sprained right ankle, Wednesday offered Durant a rare opportunity to play the role of lead actor without much of a supporting cast. Update: Durant still makes for captivating theater.

Thanks to a complete all-around effort, Durant compiled his first triple-double of the season with 35 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists to power Golden State to a win.

The Warriors’ seven-foot unicorn scored 16 first quarter points while shooting 6-for-9 from the floor, including 2-for-4 from beyond the arc. Without Curry’s three-point shooting prowess, Golden State leaned on its other MVP to deliver, and Durant did as the team opened up an eight-point first quarter edge.

By halftime, Durant had 20 points on his ledger, and the only other Warrior in double figures was Curry’s primary sidekick, Thompson, who added 13 points thanks to a few long-range makes.

Though Durant and Thompson are good enough to win games on their own, they did receive support from several players who had their minutes extended on Wednesday.

With Curry out, the Warriors called up Quinn Cook from the G-League to start in his place, and the Duke product wound up hitting a pair of first half three-pointers. A close friend of Durant, Cook made his first career start on Wednesday as Golden State wanted to limit reserve point guard Shaun Livingston’s minutes and keep him fresh for end of half and end of game situations if the team needed a veteran presence in a close game.

Cook made his starting debut alongside Jordan Bell, the rookie out of Oregon who has supplanted veteran center JaVale McGee in the Warriors’ rotation. Golden State views Bell as a bit of a baby-Draymond, and without Green on the floor, Kerr felt compelled to give his young rim protector an opportunity. Though Bell didn’t score, he recorded the team’s first assist of the night with a dish to Thompson for an open three and also rejected Charlotte point guard Kemba Walker on a third quarter layup attempt that made the highlight reel.

Without two of their stars and two other rotational pieces, the Warriors went into their matchup from the Hornets needing positive contributions from a bench that’s been off-and-on for the first two months of the season. With Cook and Bell pressed into the starting lineup, two other normal reserves, Nick Young and JaVale McGee, also gave Durant and Thompson some help.

Though Green, McCaw and Pachulia’s statuses remain uncertain, Curry will not be available for the final game of the Warriors’ six-game road stretch on Friday night in Detroit.

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