Klay Thompson scored 25 of his game-high 32 points in the first half, Jonathan Kuminga recorded a double-double and the Golden State Warriors took care of business with a 118-110 victory over the Utah Jazz on Sunday night in San Francisco.
Hitting nine of his 11 shots from the field, Kuminga finished with 21 points and a game-high 10 rebounds after missing the past six games with bilateral knee tendonitis. Rookies Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis chipped in with 16 points apiece for Golden State (43-35), which won for the seventh time in its past eight games.
The Warriors played without star Stephen Curry (rest).
Johnny Juzang poured in a career-best 27 points for Utah (29-49), which lost its 12th straight.
Thompson’s first-half explosion featured 5-for-9 shooting from deep as Golden State led by as many as 23 before the break en route to a 68-54 advantage at intermission.
The Jazz never got within single digits in the second half until they scored the game’s final seven points in the last 72 seconds.
Thompson finished 12-for-23 overall and 6-for-13 on 3-pointers, helping the Warriors shoot 53.3 percent from the floor and 14-for-35 (40 percent) from beyond the arc.
Golden State also sat Andrew Wiggins (left ankle) for a second straight game as it gears up for a showdown with the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday night, one with major Western Conference play-in implications.
Podziemski complemented his 16 points with seven rebounds and six assists, while Jackson-Davis also collected seven rebounds and had four blocks. Chris Paul had a game-high nine assists, 12 points and four steals in Curry’s starting spot.
Juzang, a second-year pro who had never scored more than 19 points in a game in his NBA career, had 22 in the first half alone. He finished 7-for-8 on 3-pointers as Utah outscored the hosts 45-42 from deep.
Keyonte George backed Juzang with 25 points, while Collin Sexton had 15 to go with a team-high seven assists.
–Field Level Media