332nd victory as Warriors hold on to beat Raptors 113
“What a game to tie the record,” Nelson said. “Unbelievable. It had about everything you’d want, from good to bad to playing great to wetting the bed, and we did about all of it. Somehow we prevailed.”
The victory was the 1,332nd for Nelson, who can pass Wilkens when Golden State plays at Washington on Tuesday.
Nelson’s milestone win almost didn’t happen. Raptors star Chris Bosh made two free throws with 2.7 seconds left to make it 113 112 and the Warriors, with no timeouts left, struggled to get the ball in. Sonny Weems tapped Rony Turiaf’s wayward pass to Bosh, but his layup attempt rolled out as the buzzer sounded.
“Rony made a mistake by not running the baseline, which you’re allowed to do, and ended up with a bad angle,” Nelson said. “As a result, we made a crucial turnover, right where you don’t want to make one, right under the basket.”
Bosh said he didn’t get fouled on his final attempt, but acknowledged that he was rushing to get his shot off.
“Sonny made a spectacular play,” Bosh said. “Everything else just happened so fast. I really didn’t have time to react. I just wanted to get a shot up and I guess I missed it. I didn’t really get a good look at how it came off. It’s a tough break.”
Elsewhere in the NBA it was: San Antonio 100 Los Angeles Lakers 81; Boston 117 Cleveland 113; Orlando 107 Memphis 92; Oklahoma City 116 Minnesota 108; Washington 109 New Jersey 99; Indiana 133 Houston 102; and New York 113 Los Angeles Clippers 107.
At Toronto, Golden State’s players danced in a circle around Nelson after the wild finish.
“You live for moments like that, when the team wants something more than you do yourself,” Nelson said of the post game celebration. “They’re just so happy that we got it together as a group, that they were part of it.
“They put me in their circle of hope, or whatever they call that. I’ve been practising and I did a little dance. I saw CJ (Watson) do it one time, he was in the middle and he did a little dance so I tried to imitate him and give them whatever I had, which wasn’t very much.”
Turiaf said Nelson’s dancing “has a long way to go.”
“For now, he’s a second round draft pick,” Turiaf joked. “It depends on what he does in workouts and stuff in the future. We’ll see what happens. He might get better.”
Stephen Curry had 29 points and 12 assists, and Corey Maggette scored 31 points for the Warriors.
“We’ve been through a lot this year and it’s nice to feel good about ourselves a little bit down the stretch,” Curry said.
Anthony Morrow had 25 points and 10 rebounds, and Anthony Tolliver fouled out with 12 points for the Warriors, who won back to back games for the first time since Jan. 6 8.
Bosh had 42 points and 12 rebounds for the Raptors, who lost for the first time in four games. Jarrett Jack scored 19 points and Andrea Bargnani had 18 points and nine rebounds.
Curry shot just 3 for 9 from the field in the first half but went 7 for 14 after the break, scoring 15 in the final quarter.
Toronto trailed 101 86 with 8:04 remaining, but Jack scored nine points to bring the Raptors back and a driving layup by Weems made it 105 99 with 4:22 left.
After a Golden State timeout, Jack hit a jumper to make it 109 105 with 1:40 left. Ronny Turiaf missed two free throws but Bosh missed a hook shot at the other end. After Curry missed a jump shot, Jack made one of two from the line to make it 109 106 with 12 seconds to go.
Toronto fouled Curry and he missed both shots, giving the Raptors the ball with 10 seconds remaining. Golden State immediately put Jack on the line and he made both shots, making it 109 108.
The Warriors inbounded the ball to Maggette, who hit two free throws, making it 111 108 with nine seconds left.
Hedo Turkoglu cut it to one with a pair of free throws, but Toronto’s defence fell asleep on the inbounds play, allowing the Warriors to get the ball upcourt, where Amir Johnson fouled Curry hard under the basket. Curry made both free throws, making it 113 110 with three seconds left and Golden State weathered Bosh’s near heroics for the win.
Maggette said Golden State was fortunate Bosh didn’t get a better look.
“Nine times out of 10 he will make that shot,” Maggette said. “We got very lucky tonight.”
Turiaf joked that he threw the ball away on purpose to make the finish more memorable for Nelson.
“He was on the sideline just relaxing and stuff,” Turiaf said. “I wanted to make some excitement for him so that when he thinks about it 10 years down the road in his big mansion in Maui, he’ll be like ‘Man, that was a fun game.”‘
Curry and Morrow combined for four of Golden State’s five three pointers in the first quarter, and Maggette had 12 points as the Warriors led 37 24 after one.
Johnson had two dunks as Toronto opened the second with a 14 4 spurt and fought back to make it 57 54 at the half.
Morrow made three more three pointers in the third and Curry scored six points, all of them in a 9 0 run that snapped a 70 all tie, as the Warriors took an 88 79 lead into the fourth. Select http://trymobilespy.com/ a paragraph of text and click on summarize under the services menu
