Warriors beat Hornets in throwback low-scoring affair as scuffle breaks out near the end

Highlights

• The Warriors triumph over the Hornets with the Curry brothers meeting on the court for the first time with dad Dell broadcasting.
• The Warriors and Hornets struggled offensively, with both teams shooting poorly.
• Late-game scuffle erupts with Lester Quiñones and Grant Williams getting ejected and Miles Bridges receiving a technical foul.

Older brother Stephen Curry once again got the better of younger brother Seth Curry in a throwback low-scoring ball game that saw the Golden State Warriors take down the Charlotte Hornets, 97-84. Friday night proved to be a milestone moment for the Curry family as it marked the first time that father Dell Curry broadcast a game with his two sons going up against each other. The Warriors are now winners of 10 of their last 12 games to snap the Hornets’ four-game winning streak.

Both the Warriors and Hornets entered this game as two of the hotter teams in the NBA. However, with both teams playing the second night of a back-to-back, Golden State and Charlotte struggled to find the net for most of the night. The Warriors shot just 42.7 percent from the field, while the Hornets made just 36.4 percent of their shots.

Golden State, the 6th best three-point shooting team in the league, converted just 13-of-42 from beyond the arc (31.0 percent), while Charlotte knocked down just 28.2 percent (11-of-39) from long distance. The Warriors held the Hornets to just 29 points on 25.6 percent shooting in the first half, which is a season-low for any team this season.

No player on both teams scored over 20 points, with Hornets forward Miles Bridges leading all scorers with 19 points. Despite a cold shooting night (5-of-14 FG, 3-of-11 3P), Stephen Curry still led Golden State with 15 points, while birthday boy Andrew Wiggins, who turned 29 on Friday, added 14 points.

Quiñones-Bridges-Williams scuffle breaks out near the end

Four techs were handed out, including two ejections

The game was all but over until a scuffle broke loose in the closing seconds of the fourth quarter. Several players needed to be held back as Warriors guard Lester Quiñones went at it with Hornets forwards Grant Wiliams and Miles Bridges. Quiñones was handed two technical fouls for separate incidents, while Williams and Bridges also both received techs for their involvement. Both Quiñones and Williams were ejected from the game.

The Hornets were upset about the Warriors breaking the NBA’s “unwritten rule” about not shooting with the game already out of reach. With about 26 seconds remaining, Golden State was up 11 points with about a two-second difference between the game clock and the shot clock. Not wanting to add to their 22 turnovers on the night, the Warriors opted to go for a basket with Quiñones scoring on an uncontested layup.

Bridges, who was called for a goaltend on the play, didn’t appreciate this and gave the Warriors’ young guard a little push. And that’s when hell broke loose.

Shortly after, Williams went straight at Quiñones’ face. The two butted heads before a mob of players and coaches came in and separated them.

For a game that was already all but over, this certainly added some unnecessary drama. Steve Kerr believed it, too.

“For 10 years I’ve told our team, ‘If there’s a shot-clock differential you keep playing,’ To me, the game tells you to keep playing. We’ve always done it that way. Nobody’s ever been offended… If there’s a differential, I think guys should always keep playing. To me, it’s very strange why that would be offensive to anybody. I’ve never understood why that would be offensive.”

Of course, the ever-so-outspoken Draymond Green chimed in on the situation and took some subtle jabs at Williams.

“Grant Williams gotta stop it man. This tough guy is going absolutely wrong for him. He’s a really nice guy… Talking too much is what got you out of Dallas.”

Can the Warriors keep it going?

The defending champs come into town

The Warriors have now won 10 of their last 12 games and have become one of the best teams in the league over the past month. They have the most wins in the NBA since Jan. 24 and own the 3rd-best net rating in the league. They have the No. 3 offense and the No. 4 defense over this stretch.

However, a tough test is coming their way this weekend with Nikola Jokić and the defending champion Denver Nuggets coming to town. The last time the Nuggets were in The Bay Area, the Warriors suffered one of their worst meltdowns this season when they blew an 18-point fourth-quarter lead and lost at the buzzer thanks to a wild Jokic game-winning triple.

Golden State still sits at 10th in the Western Conference standings, but the team just finds itself just four games behind the No. 5 seeded New Orleans Pelicans, and 3.5 games back of the 6th place Dallas Mavericks. The Warriors have one of the easier remaining schedules in the NBA. A win over the defending champs would go a long way in helping them build momentum and confidence through the final stretch of the regular season.