Curry Lights Up Wizards For Warriors' 8th Straight Win

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stephen Curry scored 36 of his 51 points in the first half to offset a monster offensive game from John Wall and the Golden State Warriors pulled away to beat the Washington Wizards 134-121 Wednesday night for their eighth straight victory.

Curry made 13 of his first 14 shots and finished 19 of 28 from the field and 11 of 26 from 3-point territory. His 11 3s tied a career high.

The defending-champion Warriors (45-4) continued on their run by tying the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers for the best 49-game start in NBA history.

Along with Curry's 51, Klay Thompson scored 24 points and Draymond Green had 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Wall led the Wizards (21-26) with 10 assists and his season-best 41 points.

Curry made his first six shots from the field, including his first 5 3-point attempts, and finished the first quarter with 25 points on 9-for-10 shooting. The Warriors led 43-28 after the first and let the lead slip to nine with Curry on the bench for the first portion of the second.

Back on the floor, Curry just kept scoring. His 36 points at halftime were the most of any first half in his career and broke the Verizon Center record of 34 set by Michael Jordan on Dec. 29, 2001.

Curry went 3 of 10 in the third quarter. With him actually missing shots, the Wizards cut a 14-point halftime deficit down to two at one point and three at another until Golden State went on a 10-0 run to take the game back over.

MEMORY LANE

Twenty years after he and the Chicago Bulls won their record-setting 72nd game of the 1995-96 season against the Washington Bullets in Landover, Maryland, Steve Kerr returned to the area as Warriors coach seeing a lot of similarities as far as the attention the teams received.

"It was a pretty big deal then, obviously with Michael (Jordan) drawing so much attention everywhere we went," Kerr said. "I think today things are bigger in a lot of ways with social media and so many different media outlets. And Steph is getting a lot of notoriety, obviously, and drawing fans and media everywhere we go."

TIP-INS

Warriors: Golden State reached 30 assists for the eighth consecutive game, the most since Charlotte had 13 in a row in 1989. ... Green tied his career high with five blocks. ... The team is set to be honored for its NBA title at the White House on Thursday by President Barack Obama. ... C Festus Ezeli missed his fourth straight game with a sore left knee.

Wizards: The 134 points by Golden State were the most Washington allowed this season. ... Curry's 51 are the most points against the Wizards this season. ... Assistant Don Newman served as head coach in place of Randy Wittman, who missed his second game following the death of his brother. ... The Wizards wore jerseys with Mandarin lettering to celebrate the Chinese New Year.

UP NEXT

Warriors: Host Oklahoma City on Saturday.

Wizards: Host Philadelphia on Friday.