© Sam Sharpe-USA TODAY Sports
After a lackluster home loss to the Houston Rockets, the Warriors headed out to Charlotte, North Carolina. In visiting the home of Steph Curry, where he, and the Warriors’ two other All-Stars, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson just spent All-Star weekend, the Warriors played the more typically efficient basketball they have become accustomed to.
Here are three takeaway from the Warriors’ 121-110 win:
Curry scores career low in Charlotte
This is less a criticism of Steph Curry, and more a recognition of how good he’s typically been in his hometown. Before tonight, Curry had never scored fewer than 24 points while playing in Charlotte. Here are his previous game lines when playing at Charlotte:
Curry finished tonight’s game with just 16 points, the second-fewest among all Warriors starters. That’s a product of the team scoring that developed in tonight’s game, with all five Warriors starters finishing with double-digit points. He added 6 assists and 5 rebounds, along with a team-high 3 steals, but 4 turnovers.
Draymond Green had one of his best games of the season, with 14 points, 9 assists, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks, one steal, and 6 turnovers. Kevin Durant was quiet by his standards, but put up 20 points, 6 rebounds 4 assists, and a steal. Klay Thompson led the team in scoring, dropping 26 points (11-of-19, 3-of-5 from 3-pt), 5 rebounds, 2 turnovers.
The true star of tonight’s game for was, however, DeMarcus Cousins.
Cousins reignited
Tonight marked a few Warriors milestones for DeMarcus Cousins. It was his first game playing more than 30 minutes (insert minutes), and he hit a season- and Warriors-high in points scored (24 points). Along with the 24 points (9-of-15 shooting, 1-of-4 from 3-pt, 5-of-5 from FT), Cousins tallied 11 rebounds (marking his fourth-straight double-double), 3 assists, 3 blocks, one steal, one turnover and one technical foul.
He also slammed down a bench-enthusing dunk, which is shown below, and crossed up Cody Zeller with a devastating cut:
DeMarcus Cousins had Cody Zeller shuffling his feet ? pic.twitter.com/QWkTysJ9hG
— Chris Montano (@gswchris) February 26, 2019
“Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication! Throw down!”
I will attribute the first part of that lyric to the Warriors’ celebration following the dunk by DeMarcus Cousins below. The second half needs no explanation:
Boogie had the bench galloping ? pic.twitter.com/FPIPixSdD2
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) February 26, 2019
The legendary George Clinton, a Charlotte, North Carolina native, produced the song “Supergroovalisticprosifunkstication,” for Parliament, which brings us those lyrics. Because the song also demands that we, “Give the people what they want (heh heh!), When they want… Give the people what they need, When they need,” here’s another dunk, but from Kevin Durant, featuring an extended hang on the rim that went un-technical fouled:
Got 'em. pic.twitter.com/2OOYc8sdXf
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) February 26, 2019