Fewer mistakes help Warriors win over Nets 107-99 (w/video)

OAKLAND - The Warriors hung on and beat Brooklyn 107-99 on Thursday, snapping their two-game losing streak.

Klay Thompson scored a game-high 25 points, and perhaps more important to the Warriors was that they limited themselves to committing 11 turnovers, a first step toward possibly climbing out of last in the NBA in that category.

Stephen Curry scored 17 points after entering the game ranking second in the NBA averaging 26 points per game. He had five assists and three turnovers.

Coach Steve Kerr had discussed the turnover issue with Curry after he had 10 of them at Phoenix earlier in the week. The message sent to the point guard was that he’s welcome to take any shot he likes, but the decision-making needed to improve.

Curry went out and deferred to his teammates, with three of his assists going to Draymond Green, who scored 17 points to go along with eight rebounds and seven assists. Curry’s other two assists led to dunks from Marreese Speights and Andrew Bogut, who threw down an alley-oop.

Curry also took care of a couple items on the stat sheet. He passed the 7,000-point milestone for his career and also snapped out of his mini 3-point slump with a shot from beyond the arc to open the third quarter. He had gone three straight halves without a made 3-pointer.

The Warriors led 66-55 at halftime, marking their highest-scoring output this season in the first half. The lead came thanks to Green’s shooting and strong play from the team’s second unit. Harrison Barnes started and scored his 12 points in the first half while flourishing alongside Speights, Andre Iguodala, Leandro Barbosa and Shaun Livingston.

Iguodala appeared to snap out of his own slump with a 3-point play and a tomahawk dunk in the second quarter, though he did not score in the second half.

Speights had six points and four rebounds in the first half, providing energy on a night when reserve center Festus Ezeli did not play. He had two offensive rebounds on one possession after the Warriors only managed to grab one board on the offensive end the entire game in a loss to San Antonio on Tuesday.

Brooklyn not only was playing its second game of a back-to-back across the country, but also saw some of their buses arrive later than expected to Oracle Arena due to the traffic congestion following a big rig overturning on Interstate 880.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins said of the traffic before the game.

Brooklyn’s Jarrett Jack, the former Warriors point guard, led the Nets with 23 points. Brook Lopez, the former Stanford star, added 18 points, with his shot cutting the lead to 100-94.

But on the other end, Thompson answered with a 3-pointer to give him 23 points on the night.

Deron Williams also scored 18 points for Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, Bogut had 11 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks. Barbosa had eight points off the bench.