NBA: Steph Curry, Warriors fend off Pistons

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) drives to the basket against Detroit Pistons forward Bojan Bogdanovic during the first half of an NBA basketball game in San Francisco, Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

SAN FRANCISCO — Steph Curry scored 12 of his 26 points over the final 1:32 with a pair of 3-pointers, emphatically answering after Bojan Bogdanovic’s go-ahead 3 with 1:41 to play, and the Golden State Warriors held on to beat the last-place Detroit Pistons 113-109 on Friday night.

Detroit’s Cade Cunningham made a driving reverse layup with 2:10 to play that tied it at 100 and wound up with 30 points. He also scored five straight points down the stretch to pull the Pistons to 95-94 at the 4:20 mark of the fourth.

The Warriors were down 103-102.

Then Steph dropped 8-straight points, including back-to-back step-back 3s 😤

Pistons-Warriors | Live on NBA App
📲 https://t.co/8PHAJQBBIr pic.twitter.com/gG1PEm9dYT

— NBA (@NBA) January 6, 2024

Klay Thompson had 19 points while carrying the scoring load until Splash Brother Curry got going. Dario Saric added 17 points off the bench.

Curry shot 7 for 19 while missing eight of his first nine 3-point tries before hitting from the baseline with 2:58 remaining.

Jonathan Kuminga had 11 points and six rebounds making his 12th straight start during Draymond Green’s indefinite league suspension after the third-year forward didn’t play the final 18 minutes during Thursday night in a last-second loss to the Nuggets — something coach Steve Kerr said was based on Andrew Wiggins’ strong play in the second half.

Golden State pulled this one off 24 hours after squandering a late 18-point lead following a 44-point third quarter and watching Nikola Jokic hit a 40-footer as defending champion Denver won it 130-127.

Kerr struggled to get over it, so shocked at what had happened.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of sleep last night I can tell you that,” he said. “That’s about as tough a loss as I can remember since I’ve been here. But it’s part of the NBA, you go through the 82 and there’s just nights like this where you can’t believe what just happened.”

The Pistons (3-32) played yet another close game as James Wiseman made his first return to Chase Center to face his former Golden State team since being traded last February. The big man received a warm welcome back greeting upon entering the game in the first quarter.

Warriors guard Moses Moody felt the love from the fans, too, when he entered the game in the fourth quarter to a standing ovation following three straight games not getting on the floor. There were chants of “Moody! Moody!” all game long.

Golden State went 1 for 9 on 3s in the opening period and 3 of 15 by halftime before finishing 16 of 38.

UP NEXT

Pistons: At Denver on Sunday.

Warriors: Host Toronto on Sunday.