For the third time in three weeks, the Warriors were tested by one of the NBA’s elite.
For the third time, the NBA champions were too good.
The Oklahoma City Thunder put up a far better fight than Cleveland and San Antonio, but the Warriors never trailed after the first quarter on the way to a 116-108 victory at Oracle Arena on Saturday night.
On Super Bowl eve, with Jay-Z, Beyonce, Jim Harbaugh and Kate Hudson in the house, Golden State improved to 46-4 — the best 50-game start in NBA history — and stretched its regular-season home win streak to 41 games, second-longest in league annals. The Warriors are 23-0 at home this season and have won their past nine games overall.
OKC (38-14) arrived as one of the league’s hottest teams, having won 12 of 13 games. The Thunder led early, trailed by 20 points in the second quarter, then delivered a furious fourth-quarter rally.
Powered by Kevin Durant, the Thunder chipped away until a fall-away shot by Enes Kanter tied the score at 104-all with 3:35 left.
But the Warriors scored the next six points, including a layup by Stephen Curry and a 3-pointer by Klay Thompson with 1:40 left off a cross-court pass from Curry that made it 110-104.
Curry drew “MVP” chants from the crowd after hitting a step-back jumper in front of the 6-foot-10 Durant to push Golden State’s lead to 114-108 with 33.6 seconds left. Curry then out-hustled the Thunder for a loose-ball rebound and delivered a length-of-the-floor pass to Andre Iguodala for the exclamation-mark dunk.
The Thunder represented the last serious challenger the Warriors hadn’t faced this season after Golden State recently thumped the Cavaliers 132-98 in Cleveland and the Spurs 120-90 at Oracle.
Curry had 26 points and 10 assists for the Warriors, who also got 19 points from Harrison Barnes and 18 from Thompson. The Warriors bench outscored its counterparts 40-17, sparked by 15 from Marreese Speights.
Durant scored 40 points and grabbed 14 rebounds for the Thunder and Russell Westbrook had 27 points and 12 assists, but missed logging his fourth straight triple-double.
The Warriors shot 59 percent in the first half — with 15 assists and just three turnovers — on the way to a 73-59 lead.
Golden State’s bench extended a five-point lead at the end of the first quarter to 60-40 after two free throws by Speights with 4:44 left.
The Warriors got 23 first-half points from their reserves, including nine from Speights and seven from Leandro Barbosa, on combined 9-for-15 shooting. OKC’s reserves contributed just four points in the half, connecting on 2 of 11 from the field.
Durant, who had 23 first-half points, scored six in a span of 28 seconds, helping the Thunder cut into the Warriors’ 20-point margin. OKC got as close as 71-59 after a dunk by Serge Ibaka, but Curry hit a jumper with 4.4 seconds left the half to inch the lead back to 14 points.