{"id":569840,"date":"2026-01-30T02:41:03","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/569840\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T02:41:03","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T02:41:03","slug":"sharp-shooting-fuels-win-vs-jazz-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/569840\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharp-shooting fuels win vs. Jazz \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even as their front office feverishly navigates the hours before the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline<\/a>, by which time their roster will be untouched or remade, the Warriors are scheduled to continue playing basketball with the roster they have.<\/p>\n

Their 140-124 win over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday at Delta Center was more survival test than exemplary hoops. Still fighting through the fog that formed with the loss of Jimmy Butler III<\/a>, Golden State was playing for the third time in three nights in two different time zones.<\/p>\n

Yet the Warriors (27-22) prevailed because they sizzled from beyond the arc and their veterans kept it together long enough to keep the Jazz at bay.<\/p>\n

Eight Warriors scored in double figures, led by 27 points from Stephen Curry and 26 from Moses Moody. The Warriors piled up 38 assists in scoring a season high in points.<\/p>\n

Here are three observations from the finale of a four-game road trip during which Golden State went 2-2:<\/p>\n

Bomb Squad Scorches the Nets<\/p>\n

After shooting 23.1 percent from distance<\/a> against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, the Warriors wasted little time serving notice that this night would be entirely different.<\/p>\n

Though it surely helped that Utah\u2019s defense is basically five guys masquerading as traffic cones, Golden State drilled seven 3-pointers in the first quarter and 15 in the first half \u2013 the most in any half this season.<\/p>\n

Golden State finished with 23 triples on 42.6-percent shooting.<\/p>\n

And the splashing was spread across the roster, with nine different players diving into the feast. Moody led the barrage with five, with Curry nailing four. Buddy Hield and Will Richard had three each. De\u2019Anthony Melton, Gui Santos and Quinten Post each drained two.<\/p>\n

The only players who took the court and didn\u2019t participate in the \u201c3 party\u201d were Draymond Green (0 of 6 from deep), Trayce Jackson-Davis and Malevy Leons. The latter two played only the final four minutes.<\/p>\n

Horford Prospers in Another Start\u00a0<\/p>\n

Al Horford, who made one start through Golden State\u2019s first 44 games, was the starting center for the second time in three games.<\/p>\n

And for the second time in three games, he showed why this is good for the Warriors.<\/p>\n

Even at age 39, Horford is a vastly better player than Post, who made 22 consecutive starts before Horford was inserted into the lineup on Sunday at Minnesota. Horford can shoot the 3-ball just as well and is a considerably more effective and versatile defender.<\/p>\n

Horford totaled nine points, a team-high eight assists, five rebounds and three blocks. He finished plus-22 over 24 minutes.<\/p>\n

As a bonus, it\u2019s evident that Horford\u2019s presence on defense makes Green better on that end.<\/p>\n

Can Horford become Golden State\u2019s permanent starting center? Yes, but with a caveat. He doesn\u2019t play both sides of a back-to-back set. The most that can happen is he becomes the \u201cprimary\u201d center.<\/p>\n

Uneven Bench Tough When it Mattered<\/p>\n

Though the game was sloppy and uneven and tough on the eyes \u2013 the Warriors had 20 turnovers, the Jazz 19 \u2013 the bench overcame an uneven three quarters to close things in the fourth.<\/p>\n

The Warriors, having seen their 22-point lead trimmed to eight over the final five minutes of the third quarter, entered the fourth on the edge of vulnerability. They were up 11 with 7:32 remaining when Curry, Green and Moody went to the bench.<\/p>\n

The game was left in the hands of the reserves, whose previous work suggested it could be long seven minutes. Of the five Warriors bench players to play in the first three quarters, only Richard had a positive plus-minus (plus-1). This could get dicey.<\/p>\n

Though Moody reentered to stabilize things, the Warriors outscored the Jazz 22-17 over the final 7:32. Job well done on a night when coach Steve Kerr would have been more than reluctant to call upon Curry and Green in the final minutes.<\/p>\n

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even as their front office feverishly navigates the hours before the Feb. 5 NBA trade deadline, by which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3785],"tags":[869,7,423,1104,6,932,422,427,3972,1329],"class_list":{"0":"post-569840","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-utah-jazz","8":"tag-al-horford","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-jazz","11":"tag-moses-moody","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-steph-curry","14":"tag-utah","15":"tag-utah-jazz","16":"tag-utahjazz","17":"tag-warriors-observations"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}