The Golden State Warriors allowed a career-high in scoring from Josh Richardson, but in the end, the Dubs were still too much heat for Miami.
Although the Golden State Warriors pulled out the victory, it wasn’t before Josh Richardson made fans understand why the Heat didn’t want to trade the young stud. Richardson made eight threes en route to scoring a career-high 37 points.
Richardson, a key factor in the Jimmy Butler to Miami trade that never was, has been highly sought after by many teams. Last night, he proved why Miami has put its long-term future in his hands.
He was absolutely brilliant. He played his game, not letting the Dubs formidable defense get to him. He stepped into shots with confidence, making eight of his eleven attempts from deep. Richardson ended the game 14-for-22 from the field.
It wasn’t enough though as the Warriors won 120-118.
Kevin Durant, the Warrior that went crazy tonight, put up 39 points, shooting just 1-for-7 from deep. Inefficiency from deep plagued Durant, but within the arc, he was absolutely automatic, shooting 15-for-17 on non-three-point shots.
Curry’s 25 and Thompson’s 29 also helped the Dubs snag the victory. Cousins, who was fouled with about five and a half seconds left, sealed the deal. It was Durant’s step back just moments before that really gave the Dubs the ball game.
The Warriors allowed Miami back in the game in the fourth because they continually failed to rebound the ball. For the game, the two-time defending champs gave up 19 offensive rebounds. As a team, they only had 36 total rebounds, being out-rebounded by 14.
Richardson’s career-high combined with an equally impressive performance from Durant made this game of the season’s best. While there are many takeaways for Golden State, at the end of the day, they came out on top.
Moving forward, the Warriors will be back in play Tuesday against a difficult Jazz team.