Stephen Curry led the Warriors with a dominant scoring performance as they came away with a 126-120 win over Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs.
The Warriors started out the game with a major hill to climb as they went down 14-28 in the first quarter itself. Coming off a blowout loss to the Thunder, their spirits and morale initially looked broken.
However, a second-half flurry from Curry, in which he dropped 22 points in the third quarter alone, helped the Warriors steal the win against the Spurs tonight. He finished the game leading all scorers with 46 points, five rebounds, five assists, and two steals, while shooting 13-of-25 (52%) from the floor.
Following the game, Stephen Curry spoke to the media and gave an honest assessment of the last 24 hours after the blowout loss to the Thunder. Coming off a 102-126 loss to the defending champions, he emphasized that teams with high expectations need to adapt quickly to change instead of fearing it.
“When you lose, you’ve got to assess what’s going on. Don’t be afraid of changes. And that means everybody should be ready to adapt to whatever you ask.”
“Especially with a team with higher expectations, we’re not going to sit in a situation and just think that things are going to change on their own. Like, whether that’s lineup changes, whether that’s how we approach the game, the energy, and whatever it is.”
“We’ve been around the block long enough, and we have enough experience to know when to address stuff and not make it personal. It’s everyone taking more accountability and ownership and keeping it real. We’ve probably got to do it three or four more times the rest of the season, but that’s just how basketball is at this level when you have expectations.”
Curry’s teammate on the Warriors, Jimmy Butler, also spoke to the media and answered the same question about an honest assessment of the last 24 hours. He felt the experience of the loss to Thunder gave them some key lessons as a team.
“Very humbling to see what a championship team really looks like. The championship aspirations, that’s what we need to get to. Together on both sides of the ball, having fun, very joyful when we’re out there, and I think we got back to that tonight,” said Butler in a reflection of how the loss to the Thunder fueled the win against the Spurs.
Butler finished this game with 28 points, six rebounds, eight assists, and three steals tonight after scoring only 12 points in the blowout loss to the Thunder. This game has improved the Warriors’ record to seven wins, six losses for the season and has certainly boosted locker room morale.
Following the rumors of tensions in the locker room, this is a bright sign for the Warriors. They are set to face the Spurs in a rematch of this fixture on Friday night (November 14).
