Stephen Curry sat out last nights games because of the left ankle he hurt on Saturday against the Oklahoma City Thunder. With Curry out of the Warriors line up the game may not have went the way anyone expected it to go, but Golden State still got a win over the Atlanta Hawks 109-105 in overtime. It was the 6th win in a row for Golden State and they also stayed perfect at home (Oracle Arena) this season. The last loss Golden State had at home was January 27, 2015 (113-111) against the Chicago Bulls. Golden State was up 32-26 after the 1st quarter and extended the lead to 59-48 at halftime and it started to look like the Warriors would cruise to another home win. The Warriors managed just 16 3rd quarter points and Atlanta was able to cut the lead to 5 at 75-70. Of course since the game went into overtime it means that Atlanta outscored Golden State 27-22 in the 4th quarter. The Warriors put up 12 points in overtime to Atlanta’s 9 points to get the victory. With Curry out injured Klay Thompson stepped up to lead the Warriors in scoring with 26 points. While the Warriors have become known for “small ball” last night there center Andrew Bogut chipped in 19 points. Bogut made 8 of the 9 shots he took from the field. Draymond Green had 15 points and led the team on rebounds with 13 and assists with 9. Harrison Barnes was the 4th Warriors starter to score in double digits with 12 points. Marreese Speights added 10 points off of the Golden State bench. Speights went 2 for 2 from behind the 3-point line making both of them in the 4th quarter. Golden State turned to Shaun Livingston as a starter and Leandro Barbosa off the bench to help fill the void with Curry out. Livingston played the bulk of the minutes (34), but Barbosa added the offense with 11 points. Livingston added 6 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assist and 2 steals in the game. Atlanta was led in scoring by Paul Milsap with 19 points. Al Horford and Dennis Schroder (off the bench) each had 17 points. Kent Bazemore had 15 points and tied with Horford for the team lead in rebounds with 9. Kyle Korver and Mike Scott each had 11 points and did their damage from behind the 3-point line. Korver went 3 of 6 while Scott was 3 of 5 from behind the 3-point line. Jeff Teague was the Hawks team leader in assists with 6.With the win Golden State improved to 54-5 on the season. Atlanta fell to 33-28 and are holding on to the #5 seed in the Eastern Conference right now. Atlanta will stay in California and play the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. Golden State will play host to Oklahoma City on Thursday. It’s a rematch of Saturday nights game that the Warriors won 121-118 in overtime.
If you’re playing daily fantasy or your fantasy league is still going on here are some of the guys I hope you had in your line up last night. D’Angelo Russell scored 39 points and grabbed 6 rebounds in the Lakers 170-101 win over the Brooklyn Nets. Brook Lopez had 23 points for the Nets in a losing effort. Damian Lillard had his 3rd consecutive 30 plus point night in a row scoring 30 points exactly as the Portland Trail Blazers cruise to a 104-85 win over the New York Knicks. Carmelo Anthony put up 23 points for the Knicks. Hassan Whiteside had 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds as the Miami Heat beat the Chicago Bulls 129-111. Kemba Walker also had a 26 point night in the Charlotte Hornets 126-92 win over the Phoenix Suns. Wesley Matthews scored 21 points to lead the Dallas Mavericks as they beat the Orlando Magic 121-108. Ersan Ilyasova scored 22 for the Magic in the loss. Hopefully some of these guys where in your winning line up last night.
Jimmie Johnson used a pit strategy to win the 2nd race of the NASCAR season at the Atlanta Motor Speedway. Kevin Harvick had led the most laps and he appeared to have the car to beat, but Johnson pitted as soon as he could get enough gas in the car to make it to the end of the race. For some reason Harvick and the other drivers at the front of the field stayed on the race track longer than expected and with Johnson on new tires he was able to build a lead that no one could cut into. While there was a late caution giving the rest of the field a shot at Johnson; he took the inside lane and was able to hold the field off for the win. Johnson’s teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. came 2nd with Kyle Busch in 3rd his brother Kurt in 4th and Carl Edwards rounding out the Top 5. Harvick led 131 of the 330 laps, but ended up coming home in 6th place. Kyle Busch was one of Chris Olmstead’s choice on the Sunday morning edition of Sports Time Radio; so he did have a Top 5 finish. Now his other two choices; that’s a different story. Chris had Matt Kenseth who did lead 47 laps, but had a pit road penalty and then was black flagged. Even with all that Kenseth finished 19th. Kasey Kahne was Chris’ other choice and he never really factored in the race and came home in 23rd place. With 2 drivers locked into The Chase with wins the series heads out to Las Vegas for the Kobalt 400 Sunday at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Will we have a new drivers name entered into The Chase or will Johnson or Denny Hamlin get their 2nd win of the season?
With a win last night the Edmonton Oilers improved to 24-34-7. With last nights loss the Buffalo Sabres are 23-31-8. Now neither of these teams are a threat to make the playoffs this season, but their match up last night drew some interest because it featured Connor McDavid the #1 overall pick in the 2015 draft taking on the #2 draft pick in the same draft Jack Eichel. The Oilers beat the Sabres 2-1 in overtime last night and McDavid scored both of the Edmonton goals in the win. It was almost Eichel who had the game winner in overtime as he spun an Oilers defenseman around, but missed a backhanded attempt on goal. Just seconds later McDavid raced by the Buffalo defense and beat Sabres goalie Robin Lehner for the game winner. While right now this match up might not mean anything as far as a playoff race might go, but are we looking at two guys who could become long term stars in the NHL.
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