The Golden State Warriors will put their newfound home-court success to the ultimate test Friday night when they host the Oklahoma City Thunder in San Francisco.
The Warriors have won five of six overall, including their last three at home over the Phoenix Suns, Orlando Magic and Dallas Mavericks.
The league leaders in road games played (20), the Warriors tip off a stretch of 10 of 11 at home, starting with a team that has already won at the Chase Center this season.
In fact, the Thunder have won pretty much wherever they’ve gone, running up a 12-3 road record with losses only to the Portland Trail Blazers, Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs.
The latter two defeats have come in Oklahoma City’s most recent road contests against the Spurs and Timberwolves. Having played six of their last eight games at home, as well as a pair in Las Vegas during the NBA Cup competition, the Thunder haven’t won a true road contest in almost a month, since a triumph at Utah on Dec. 7.
The defending champions begin a two-game trip on a three-game winning streak, having thumped the Philadelphia 76ers, Atlanta Hawks and Trail Blazers by a combined 65 points.
The San Francisco Bay Area visit represents a homecoming for emerging Thunder star Jalen Williams, who played at Santa Clara.
He has contributed an average of 15.7 points to the winning streak, but Thunder coach Mark Daigneault was quick to point out after the Portland game that scoring numbers don’t tell his entire story.
Williams totaled 20 rebounds, 20 assists and six steals in the wins.
“What makes him a great player is that he’s very good at everything,” Daigneault said. “That’s really what he needs to hang his hat on. It’s how he established himself as a great player. It’s how to continue to be a great player.”
In a rare NBA matchup of Santa Clara alums, Williams will go head-to-head in San Francisco with Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski. They missed each other by one year at the school.
Podziemski had three key fourth-quarter 3-pointers and 19 points in all in Golden State’s 132-125 win at Charlotte on Wednesday. He has scored in double figures in seven of his last eight games.
The Warriors flew home from a 2-1 trip riding the momentum of a third, fourth and fifth straight 120-point performance and looking forward to three straight weeks in California. Their only road game in that stretch will be against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“We’ve got to take advantage of it, for sure,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “The schedule was against us for the first couple months of the season, and now it flips back the other way. We’ve got to take advantage.”
Part of the tough early stretch was the pair of early meetings with the Thunder.
In a matchup of superstar guards, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander outscored Stephen Curry 28-11 in a 126-102 romp at Oklahoma City in November, before Curry sat out with a bruised quad and watched his rival pour in 38 points in a 124-112 win in a visit to San Francisco in early December.
–Field Level Media
