SAN FRANCISCO -- Sometimes a date with the 10-win Detroit Pistons is exactly what a team needs. That seemed to be the perfect remedy for a handful of Warriors on Tuesday night at Chase Center in their 102-86 blowout win.
Playing the Pistons also clearly was the perfect potion for Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.
Curry came out of the gates as the Warriors' director of the offense with Draymond Green out. He didn't attempt his first shot from the field -- a missed layup -- until there was just under six minutes remaining in the first quarter, but he quickly nailed his first 3-point attempt the next time the Warriors were on offense. From there on, the night was filled with flashes of vintage Splash Brothers between Curry and Thompson against a team full of young players and not many wins.
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"That was probably the best stretch that Steph and Klay have played together and it was a really nice kind of groove in front of our home fans, which was really great to see," Steve Kerr said after the win.
Tuesday night didn't need to be a performance where Curry put up ungodly scoring numbers. This one was all about efficiency.
Despite sitting the final 13-plus minutes of the game, Curry scored 18 points in 29 minutes. He also dished eight assists, swiped three steals and committed only one turnover. Curry went 6-for-11 from the field and 4-for-8 from long distance.
He finished with a game-high plus-21 in plus-minus.
Golden State Warriors
"Steph is someone who controls the offense," Andrew Wiggins, who scored 19 points, said. "A lot of the attention is towards Steph, because we know what he can do already, but with all of them out there it makes the game easy.
"Steph makes the game easy for everybody."
Thompson's second career game in San Francisco and fifth game overall this season was his best since his return. He finished with a season-high 21 points, and his four assists also were a season high. His buzzer-beating 3-pointer gave him 17 points at halftime, which tied his previous season high in only 11 minutes and 33 seconds of action.
Klay's game-high 21 points were capped off by scoring seven points in the final two minutes of the first half, including making all three of his attempts and that 3-pointer with just 3.8 seconds remaining before halftime. The 3-pointer was his favorite play of the night, and Thompson felt the closest to himself in just his fifth game back.
He went 6-for-13 from the field, was 3-for-8 from deep and was a plus-16.
"I was just happy to see the ball go through the rim tonight, still not satisfied," Thompson said.
To make it clear, a mid-January game against the Pistons won't be remembered forever. Everything started with Curry playing the Draymond role early on, though. He played a simple brand of ball and it translated to a win that checked a whole lot of boxes.
His fellow Splash Brother said that Curry can score 18 points and hand out eight assists "in his sleep." He also joked that Steph is all in his space doing his pregame warmups at the same time as him and that he's "sick of that guy."
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In reality, Thompson is soaking in every moment he shares the floor with Steph, and he's just waiting for Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala to join them and get the band fully back together.
"I'm just so happy to be back out there on the court with him again," Thompson said of Curry.
He isn't alone there. Every great team can use a get-right game, and pounding the Pistons might have been the perfect answer for these two.