Sweating off the stench of Draymond Green’s 35th birthday celebration, the Warriors clawed their way to a 121-119 comeback win against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday at Barclays Center for a happy flight home back to San Francisco.
Steph Curry (40 points) and Jimmy Butler (25 points) formed the kind of dynamic duo that has the Warriors dreaming of another NBA championship parade, combining for 65 points.
NIGHT NIGHT, NETS 😴 pic.twitter.com/L5w52ReTeJ
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 7, 2025
Curry continued his torrid stretch, dominating the Warriors’ five-game road trip. Behind games of 56, 29, 21, 28 and now 40 points, Curry averaged 34.8 points away from Chase Center. Butler showed why he was the perfect addition for the Warriors, going a perfect 10 of 10 from the free-throw line.
Though he finished with 40 points and made seven threes, Curry was a minus-16 in 36 minutes. However, Butler was a plus-17 in his 35 minutes.
The stars shone brightest, but the Warriors’ role players stepped up as well. Gary Payton II scored a season-high 16 points and came down with nine rebounds. Rookie Quinten Post (plus-13) made two timely threes and finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. Gui Santos provided all the energy, ending as a plus-12 in 24 minutes.
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Here are three takeaways from the Warriors finishing their road trip 4-1.
There are bad starts, and then there’s the product the Warriors put on the court through the first 12 minutes of the game.
First, Brandin Podziesmki exited the game within the first minute because of lower back soreness. When the Warriors were down 5-0, coach Steve Kerr tried to calm the storm by calling timeout. Then the deficit went to 8-0, and with five-and-a-half minutes remaining in the quarter the Warriors trailed by 20 points, 25-5.
How bad was it? A total of eight Warriors played at least one minute in the first quarter, and only three – Curry, Payton and Moses Moody – scored. The Nets used 10 players, with each seeing the floor for at least four minutes, and just one went scoreless. While the Nets shot 60.9 percent overall (14 of 23) and 45.5 percent on 3-pointers (5 of 11), the Warriors were held to 31.8 percent from the field (7 of 22) and 14.3 percent from three (1 of 7).
The Warriors grabbed half as many rebounds as the Nets (10 to 5) and were called for five fouls. Not a single whistle was blown against the Nets, despite playing extremely physical and aggressive. The Warriors went into the second quarter down 35-15, and the most bizarre part of everything might have been an odd technical foul called against coach Steve Kerr.
Kerr’s tech couldn’t quite get the Warriors going. However, being challenged at the end of the first quarter did exactly that.
Wearing a black mask after fracturing his nose two games ago, Payton found himself in a scuffle with Zaire Williams as the quarter came to a close. Fuel to the fire, which happened to be just what the Warriors needed.
GP2 and Ziaire Williams got into it at the end of the first quarter 😳
— Warriors on NBC Sports Bay Area (@nbcswarriors.bsky.social) March 6, 2025 at 5:27 PM
Post started the second quarter after sitting the entire first and began the frame with a bang, hitting a 3-pointer and letting everybody know about it.
Quinten Post doesn’t miss 🤫
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 7, 2025
As the quarter went on, the Warriors kept cutting into the Nets’ lead. Cleaning their mistakes and playing with purpose, the Warriors went from scoring 15 points in the first quarter to dropping 40 in the second, outscoring the Nets by 15 for a five-point halftime deficit.
The cherry on top was Curry lighting fireworks from the logo in the final seconds of the first half.
LOGO STEPH 🤯
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 7, 2025
A Butler 3-pointer, only his third since joining the Warriors, gave Golden State its first lead of the night a little under three minutes into the second half.
Jimmy Buckets for the lead ☔️
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 7, 2025
The non-Steph minutes officially have become the Butler minutes. This is why the Warriors went out and acquired Butler. Not necessarily to beat the 21-win Nets, but to stabilize everything when the center of the Warriors’ universe needs to rest.
Butler came in for Curry at the 2:45 mark of the third quarter with the Warriors down by five points, 85-80. Once it was time for Curry to return the favor and enter the game for Butler, the Warriors were ahead by four points, 95-91, with a little more than eight minutes remaining in the game. That’s what Butler brings to the Warriors.
The Warriors in that span outscored the Nets 15-6. Butler during that time scored seven points, five coming from the free-throw line, and added an assist. His bully-ball slowed the game down and continued to bring a new element to the Warriors.
Dray finds Jimmy for the tough and-1 😤
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 7, 2025
What the Warriors used to lack, Butler excels in. The six-time NBA All-Star scored 20 points for the fourth time in a Warriors jersey, doing so for the first time since reaching that total in his first three games with his new team.
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