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The madness can stop as a narrative -- the mighty Warriors are fine. Golden State stopped its whopping two-game skid with a 112-105 victory over the Knicks on Sunday, as Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson shrugged off their shooting woes to combine for 60 points on 45 shots. Curry finished 3-of-5 from long range in the second half for 19 points while the Splash Brothers combined for nine made 3-pointers. 

It was a reassuring win for Golden State, getting its first win since Kevin Durant went down with injury and righting the ship of their slumping offense, to a degree. For the Knicks, a noble effort, and a loss. So your pretty typical Sunday national TV Melo-Knicks game. 

Takeaways: 

  • The Warriors aren’t “fixed,” after this game. Much of their success was built on the Knicks’ completely horrific off-ball defense on cuts. Golden State tore the Knicks to pieces, and while that helped with establishing the Warriors’ pace, they still never really broke the game open the way you’d expect. It’s a win, and a reassuring one, but was far from a dominant effort. They didn’t need to be dominant, but we’re still looking for that team, especially since Durant went down. 
  • Draymond Green (13-7-4-2) finished with a minus-two, but he was big in this game. He brought aggressiveness to the matchup with Kristaps Porzingis, and while Porzingis scored 24 points, it took him 21 shots to do so. Green was active, and brought energy to a team that’s been lacking it. His aggressiveness kept the Warriors’ tempo where it needed to be. He remains the most important Warrior. 
  • Thompson was brilliant. His 29 points on 8-of-21 shooting was nothing out of this world, but he consistently kept the Warriors with the lead and put pressure on the Knicks to match them. He made strong decisions with the ball and his defense was quietly very good. He gave Courtney Lee fits on both ends. 
  • Carmelo Anthony was basically a no-show, 15 points on an efficient 6-of-12 shooting with two assists. Melo had moments in the third where he started to percolate, then once again vanished. Melo has done this quite a bit, scoring in one big quarter and then being mostly quiet the rest of the time. 
  • Willy Hernangomez had a bad game. He missed multiple assignments, traveled trying the same drop step move twice, messed up a screen which forced a bad shot late in the clock, and was generally lost all over the place. Tough game for the youngster. 
  • Curry, notably, finished with a plus-22 to lead all players, along with six assists. 
  • Derrick Rose was great. He played some of the hardest defense I’ve seen from him this year, scored 28 and was aggressive without forcing it. Excellent game from Rose. 
  • Golden State didn’t play its best game, but it also didn’t need to. The Warriors just needed to get a win. They’re in survival mode until the playoffs, trying to secure the 1-seed while getting Durant healthy and finding some rest. The Knicks need to tank and got a loss, so both sides came out fine Sunday.

Golden State’s magic number for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoffs and homecourt throughout the NBA playoffs is 19 after the win.