What we learned as Warriors pick up impressive win over Jazz originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
SAN FRANCISCO — The feisty Utah Jazz have been one of the bigger surprises through the early part of the season, and showed why Friday night at Chase Center.
The Warriors came out of the gates hitting on all cylinders, scoring 37 points in the first quarter in what looked to be an easy win. The easy part wasn’t the case. The win was.
Bearing down in the second half with their stars showing up in the clutch, the Warriors willed out a 129-118 win. Hello, .500 club! With their 11-point victory, the Warriors now are 10-10 on the season before hitting the road to face the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday and Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday.
All five Warriors scored in double figures. Steph Curry led the way with 33 points, followed by 20 apiece from Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins, 13 from Draymond Green and 10 from Kevon Looney.
Jordan Poole scored 11 of his 19 points in the second half, two nights after going 3-for-15 with only eight points.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ ninth home victory this season.
Klay Comes Alive
Preaching patience and trust, Thompson listened to his own lessons in the third quarter. Going into halftime, he had scored only two points while going 1-for-5 from the field and 0-for-3 beyond the arc. Then came the third quarter.
With the Warriors briefly losing what was once a 17-point lead, Thompson caught fire at the perfect time. In the third quarter alone, he scored 12 points — all on 3-pointers. Klay went 4-for-5 from deep, highlighted by two huge possessions near the end of the quarter.
He wasn’t done there, too. Thompson scored another six points in the fourth quarter on two more threes, finishing the night 6-for-12 from deep. One of those misses was a half-court heave at the end of the shot clock.
This season, Thompson hasn’t been able to recover consistently after a slow start. The opposite was true this time.
Donte’s Impact
Steve Kerr has been searching for players who simply do the little things, play the right way and know their role. Look no further than Donte DiVincenzo.
Kerr saw the veteran guard as a perfect fit over the offseason for the Warriors. Now that he’s healthy and rotations are starting to sort out, DiVincenzo is proving his coach to be right. His first made basket, and second shot attempt of the night, didn’t come until there were five-plus minutes to go in the game.
The result was a sweet…