Injury-ravaged Warriors rally by Hornets
March 18, 2010
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—The injury-ravaged Golden State Warriors haven’t had theluxury of slowly bringing along their NBA Development League.
That’s worked well for Reggie Williams(notes), one of five D-League players calledup by Golden State this season.
Williams scored 22 points, 18 in the fourth quarter, to help the Warriorsovercome a 21-point deficit and beat the New Orleans Hornets 131-121 onWednesday night.
“Coach (Don) Nelson wants us to push it and if there’s an open shot just totake it,” said Williams after the Warriors’ biggest comeback in more than twoyears. “You have jitterbugs coming into it but coach gives everybody the greenlight and you just go from there. He works the nervousness out of you and letsyou play.”
Monta Ellis(notes) had 28 points and tied his career high with 13 assists whileAnthony Tolliver(notes), another D-League callup, had a career-high 30 points for theWarriors, who tied a team record with nine 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
Williams, who last Friday signed his second 10-day contract with GoldenState, had four of them, and Devean George(notes) added two to help the Warriors winfor the second time in three games following a six-game losing streak.
“Sometimes things just turn around,” said Nelson, who needs five more winsto pass Lenny Wilkens as the NBA victory leader. “We got hot at the right timein the fourth quarter and it all ended up going our way.”
David West(notes) had 36 points and a season-high 15 rebounds for New Orleans,which lost for the eighth time in its last nine road games. The Hornets havelost 10 of 13 overall to drop eight games behind Portland for the final playoffspot in the Western Conference.
“They were unreal,” said Morris Peterson(notes), who had 17 points for NewOrleans. “Every time we looked up it seemed like they were taking the ball tothe basket. We’re up by 21 and they just got hot as a team.”
Golden State looked down and out for most of three quarters until stagingits biggest comeback of the season.
Ellis sparked the rally with his second straight double-double whileTolliver and Williams combined for 21 points in the fourth quarter.
That was key for the Warriors, who played without third-leading scorer andRookie of the Year candidate Stephen Curry(notes). Curry sat out with a sprained leftankle, the first game he’s missed this season, and was in a walking boot afterthe game.
It turns out Golden State didn’t need him after falling behind 87-66 midwaythrough the third quarter. The Warriors, who rallied from 18 points down to winthree times this season, looked lost until that point.
“Just relentless,” Tolliver said when asked to describe the comeback.“When we’re down and out, it seems like sometimes we play our best basketball.Sometimes that’s what it takes to wake us up.”
It helped that the Hornets were again without leading scorer Chris Paul(notes), whounderwent left knee surgery on Feb. 4 and missed his 23rd straight game.
Paul is improving and could be back as early as Saturday against Utah, butcoach John Bower said he’s likely to keep Paul out until the team returns homeMonday.
Paul’s return comes at a critical time for the Hornets, who are on the vergeof falling out of playoff contention.
“It was rather difficult for us to handle when they got on a roll,” Bowersaid. “They got on the move and stopped us from doing many of the things thatgot us out to the big lead.”
The Hornets led by as much as 21 after halftime and appeared headed for ablowout until the Warriors made their run beginning late in the third quarter.
Chris Hunter(notes), who also started the season in the Development League, hadseven points during a 22-9 burst to end the third, then Ellis scored five quickpoints in the fourth, including a 3-pointer that tied it at 98 with 10:11 left.
The Warriors later hit three 3-pointers, two straight by Reggie Williams, totake a 111-106 lead. Williams added two more 3-pointers and Ellis scored on afloating 7-foot jumper to make it 119-111.
Curry became the latest to go down, sitting out with a sprained left ankle.Curry, who led Golden State in scoring in four of its previous six games,participated in the pregame shootaround but was a late scratch, the first gamehe’s missed this season. He’s listed as day-to-day.
NOTES: The back-to-back double-doubles by Ellis are the first time he’sachieved that in his NBA career. … The Warriors set a franchise record with 113-pointers in the second half.