Why Moses Moody and Co. leading win vs. Pels is important to Warriors’ success originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Steph Curry needed to score 95 points, make 29 shots, including 14 3-pointers, and swish 23 free throws in a two-game stretch for the Warriors to leave San Antonio with two consecutive wins against the Spurs.
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He didn’t even reach double-digit scoring Sunday in New Orleans, yet the Warriors didn’t need him to in a 124-106 win against the Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center. That’s two wins in one for a team that far too often has needed Curry to have all his superpowers and already had two frustrating letdown losses with him earlier this season.
Sunday night in the Big Easy wasn’t about Curry, Jimmy Butler or Draymond Green. The shining star was Moses Moody, who scored a career-high 32 points on 10-of-16 shooting and went 8 of 12 on 3-pointers. His sizzling start was beyond being on fire. Moody made seven threes in the first quarter, joining Curry and Klay Thompson as the only Warriors ever to make at least seven threes in one quarter.
The proud product of Little Rock, Ark., was fueled by Southern comfort on his career night.
“I’m from the South, so whenever I’m down here, my joints feel better,” Moody joked on “Warriors Postgame Live.”
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Moody made his first two threes, missed one and then made his next five to finish. The first quarter alone was a new career high in threes by Moody for an entire game. But what happened before his first two was a bigger-picture moment for the Warriors to learn from.
A wild sequence ahead of Moody’s first three went as follows: Green missed layup, Green offensive rebound; Green missed tip shot, Green offensive rebound; Green missed tip shot, Green offensive rebound; Green missed tip shot, Green offensive rebound; Green missed tip shot, Butler offensive rebound.
Butler grabbed Green’s fifth miss in five tries and finally got the ball out of the paint, passing it to Curry at the top of the arc. Curry took one dribble to his left and dumped the ball off to a wide-open Moody for a catch-and-shoot three.
His second three also came off an offensive rebound. Rookie Will Richard came flying high from the corner to tip out a missed three from Curry, which Butler tracked down, finding Moody for another open catch-and-shoot three from the left corner.
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The effort prior those two threes were reminiscent of Gary Payton II keeping a key possession alive with two offensive rebounds against the Spurs on Wednesday night, where the result was a huge three from Curry. The Warriors as a team in New Orleans came down with 16 offensive rebounds, highlighted by five from Richard and four from Green.
“Those two games [in San Antonio], they were intense. They felt like playoff games,” Green said to Warriors Radio’s Tim Roye. “We knew the energy wouldn’t quite be there for this one. But we were able to find our own energy, create our own energy. We built a comfortable lead, they fought back. We closed the half strong and then were able to kind of handle the second half.
“A lot tougher, for different circumstances, than San Antonio.”
While Curry was held to three points – all free throws – in the first quarter, the rest of the Warriors scored 41 on 15-of-26 shooting (57.7 percent) and went 10 of 15 beyond the arc (66.7 percent). The Warriors then only scored 17 points in the second quarter, but did close the second quarter on an 8-0 run. They opened the third on a 12-4 run and outscored the Pelicans by six in the second half.
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Of course, Moody’s 32 points and eight threes are the stats that stood out in front of others. The most important stats, however, were minutes played.
Curry didn’t have to play 30 minutes, and neither did Green. The Warriors needed 34 and 36 minutes from Curry in his monstrous nights in San Antonio to get two wins. Butler (31) and Moody (33) were the only two Warriors to play at least 30 minutes in an 18-point win against the Pelicans.
And on top of Moody’s game, the Warriors also received scoring off the bench from Brandin Podziemski (19 points) and Buddy Hield (11 points). Each made three 3-pointers.
There are parts of the game that will need cleaning, like Curry (four), Green (five) and Butler (six) combining for 15 turnovers. When role players like Moody, Podziemski and Hield are picking up the pieces, the Warriors can survive those kinds of miscues from their top three players.
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Performances like the shows Curry put on in San Antonio certainly could happen again. Anything is possible when No. 30 is on the court. Just nine points and one three were required of him for the Warriors to get past the Pelicans.
Getting through an undermanned and undertalented team where the Warriors’ top talent doesn’t need to be worn down are the kind of wins that can produce heroics from Curry and his star teammates later in the most important times of the season.
