The Nets Took A Ridiculous 91-51 First Half Lead Over The Warriors

The Warriors have unsurprisingly struggled with Stephen Curry out with a shoulder injury, losing three of their last four games (including the game Curry got injured) and entered Wednesday night on the second night of a back-to-back in Brooklyn coming off of a 132-94 blowout loss to the Knicks.

They managed to do themselves one worse against the Kyrie-less Nets, as Brooklyn ran up 91 points on the Warriors in the first half, taking a 40-point lead into the break in the process. The 91 points is a Nets franchise record and the third highest scoring half in NBA history, and they did so behind a startlingly balanced attack.

As a team, Brooklyn was 35-of-49 shooting the ball (71.4 percent), hitting 13-of-19 from three (68.4 percent), and were 8-of-10 from the free throw line. Some of that was simply Kevin Durant being unguardable, as he has been for much of this season, serving as the catalyst for the Nets climb in the standings to fourth in the East after a dreadful start, winning 9 of their last 10.

However, it wasn’t just KD getting his, as Royce O’Neale (14 points) and Nic Claxton (10 points) joined him in double figures, and the other seven Nets that entered the game all scored at least five points, including Cam Thomas who only appeared in the game for three minutes. It was startlingly easy for the Nets to get a good look at the bucket, taking advantage of some horrendous transition effort from Golden State and an equally porous halfcourt defense.

Brooklyn never seemed more than one pass away from a good look at the basket in the first half, and took advantage of that with 26 first half assists. On the other side, the Warriors had just one player in double figures — 17 points off the bench from James Wiseman — as they got the doors blown off for the second straight night in New York City, which should be unacceptable for them no matter if Steph is there or not.