Stephen Curry scored 36 points, Kevon Looney matched his career high with 20 rebounds and the Golden State Warriors beat the Sacramento Kings 114-97 on Friday to cut their series deficit to 2-1.
As suspended star Draymond Green watched from home, the defending champions dominated without him as they have done so many times before.
The fiery forward was suspended without pay for stepping on the chest of Domantas Sabonis in the fourth quarter on Tuesday in game two. The Warriors also were without key defensive stopper Gary Payton II after the guard became ill on Thursday.
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Curry shot 12-for-25 with six threes while Andrew Wiggins added 20 points and seven rebounds for the Warriors, who never trailed and will now try to even the best-of-seven series in game four on Monday back on their home court.
The NBA blamed Green’s “history” in a statement announcing his one-game ban earlier in the week, and Curry took a shot at the league after securing the vital win.
“They say Draymond’s got a history, so do we. We know how to bounce back,” he told TNT after the game.
“There’s a lot of distractions and noise around the series. Obviously losing both games up there was a tough way to start and we wanted to come home with some good focus.
“Then to get that call that he’s suspended, it’s a tough blow. Yesterday at practice we had good energy understanding what the mission was.
“We couldn’t change anything about the decision. We knew it was wrong, but we knew if we could come out and win tonight it changes the momentum of the series and gives us an opportunity to just make it about basketball, and that was Draymond’s message the whole time.
“Make the right adjustments, come with the right energy, protect home court. When he gets back, we’ve got to capitalise off that and try to win and even up the series.”
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