Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) comes off the court after the Warriors’ NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Washington. AP
WASHINGTON—Stephen Curry scored 36 of his 51 points in the first half to offset a monster offensive game from John Wall and the Golden State Warriors pulled away to beat the Washington Wizards 134-121 Wednesday night for their eighth straight victory.
Curry made 13 of his first 14 shots and finished 19 of 28 from the field and 11 of 26 from 3-point territory. His 11 3s tied a career high.
The defending-champion Warriors (45-4) continued on their run by tying the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers for the best 49-game start in NBA history.
Along with Curry’s 51, Klay Thompson scored 24 points and Draymond Green had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
Wall led the Wizards (21-26) with 10 assists and his season-best 41 points.
Curry made his first six shots from the field, including his first 5 3-point attempts, and finished the first quarter with 25 points on 9-for-10 shooting. The Warriors led 43-28 after the first and let the lead slip to nine with Curry on the bench for the first portion of the second.
Back on the floor, Curry just kept scoring. His 36 points at halftime were the most of any first half in his career and broke the Verizon Center record of 34 set by Michael Jordan on Dec. 29, 2001.
Curry went 3 of 10 in the third quarter. With him actually missing shots, the Wizards cut a 14-point halftime deficit down to two at one point and three at another until Golden State went on a 10-0 run to take the game back over.
Twenty years after he and the Chicago Bulls won their record-setting 72nd game of the 1995-96 season against the Washington Bullets in Landover, Maryland, Steve Kerr returned to the area as Warriors coach seeing a lot of similarities as far as the attention the teams received.
“It was a pretty big deal then, obviously with Michael (Jordan) drawing so much attention everywhere we went,” Kerr said. “I think today things are bigger in a lot of ways with social media and so many different media outlets. And Steph is getting a lot of notoriety, obviously, and drawing fans and media everywhere we go.”