Warriors remain ahead of Bulls’ pace

Golden State rolls again in pursuit of 1995-96 Bulls’ 72-win record

Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif.

Klay Thompson got an earful from Draymond Green for his two-game total: 80 points and one assist.

Stephen Curry dished out the grief, too.

“He’s such a ball hog,” quipped Curry, who is also dishing off to Thompson at every chance.

Good thing Thompson’s shots are falling for Golden State.

He scored 40 points in consecutive games for the first time in his career and Green posted his franchise-best 12th triple-double to help the defending champion Warriors beat the Philadelphia 76ers 117-105 on Sunday night.

“Y’all are excited about the 80 points, I’m more concerned about the one assist in two games,” Green joked.

“I think you’ve got to try to do that. We’ve been in here messing with Klay, ‘You can’t make a mistake and get an assist?”’

Curry even passed up a rare wide-open shot — gasp! — to feed his fellow Splash Brother, then sneaked up to pour water on him to celebrate postgame.

“I was telling my teammates: ‘Can you get me one assist? Just catch it and shoot it,”’ said Thompson, who didn’t get any assists Sunday. “They were killing me after the game the last two games — ‘80 points, one assist, I don’t know if that’s ever been done.’ Law of averages, it’ll balance out.”

Curry had 20 points and eight assists and Green contributed 13 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists as Golden State (66-7) stayed a game ahead of the pace set by the 1995-96 Bulls’ during their record 72-win season. Chicago was 65-8 through 73 games.

Backup big man Marreese Speights added 17 points and seven rebounds in the Warriors’ 53rd straight regular-season victory at Oracle Arena and 35th consecutive at home this season.

Carl Landry scored 22 points for the lowly Sixers, who lost their ninth in a row and 22nd in 23 while playing a back-to-back.

Curry (350) and Thompson (253) have 603 combined 3s, the most by a pair of teammates in a season. Reigning NBA MVP Curry, already the first player in NBA history with 300 3s in a season, has nine games left to chase 400.

Thompson shot 15 for 27 with seven 3-pointers and had his fourth 40-point game this season and eighth of his career, all coming at home. Speights hit his first six field-goal tries, including a pair of 3-pointers, and finished 7 for 10.

“Coming down the floor, they’re always looking to rise up,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said. “Klay, you forget how big of a man he is apart from his quick release. You’re just afraid of this barrage of points, 3s, all of that. Speights came in and that’s a big man that can shoot, too.”

Ish Smith added 20 points on 9-for-14 shooting and 10 assists for the 76ers, who rallied from 24 points down and 19 in the fourth quarter before losing 108-105 to Golden State in the first meeting Jan. 30 on Harrison Barnes’ game-winning 3 with 0.2 seconds left.

Curry missed his initial four 3-point tries Sunday before connecting 4 minutes before halftime — running his NBA record to 143 straight games with at least one 3.