Warriors, Stephen Curry cool off Jazz 106-91

OAKLAND - The hottest young team in the NBA visited Oracle Arena on Saturday night, and the Golden State Warriors rolled out their usual welcome mat.

The Utah Jazz controlled the pace early, but Golden State posted a comfortable 106-91 victory, improving its home record to a league-best 33-2.

The Jazz, whose starting lineup includes no one older than 24, arrived having won 12 of 15 games since the All-Star break, including seven of its past eight.

Utah hung around much of the night, which was no surprise to Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

“You can see the improvement from the beginning of the season to now. It’s dramatic,” Kerr said before the game. “Now they’re in a position where they’ve got good young talent, they’re well-coached, they’ve got cap room, they’ve got draft picks. Their future looks good.”

Jazz coach Quin Snyder knew what a visit to Oracle could mean.

“It’s how they do what they do - they’re so good offensively,” Snyder said. “If you can step back and just enjoy the way they play, what Steve’s got ’em doing, it’s beautiful basketball.

“They’re not only the best team in the league, they’re unequivocally the best team here.”

Stephen Curry shook off a slow start, scoring 24 points to lead the Warriors, who improved their NBA-best record to 56-13. Their win total is No. 2 in franchise history, just three shy of the 1975-76 total of 59.

Leandro Barbosa added a season-high 19 on 8-for-10 shooting, Draymond Green had 15 and Andre Iguodala 13. Harrison Barnes, coming off the first back-to-back, regular-season 20-point performances of his career, added 12.

Derrick Favors scored 21 points, Trey Burke had 20 and Rodney Hood 19 for Utah.

The Jazz never led after 3-2, but Golden State was unable to push its advantage beyond 10 points until Green (eight points) and Barbosa (six) fueled a 14-9 closing push that made it 85-73 after three quarters.

Even then, the Jazz battled back to within 89-83 until Andrew Bogut made a pair of baby hook shots during a 7-0 burst that pushed the margin to 96-83 with 5:42 left. Utah never got closer than 11 points the rest of the way.

In a slow-paced first half, Utah crept within 36-35 late in the second quarter when Curry came to the rescue, scoring 11 points in the final 3:26 of the half to push the lead to 49-40.

He’d made just one of six shots on the night - and only 14 of 48 over a stretch of three-plus games - so naturally he broke out of the slump by doing something you don’t see every day.

Driving toward the basket, he was tripped by Utah’s Dante Exum, but still managed to flip a shot off the backboard and in as he was falling to the ground. He added the free throw, then hit a 3-pointer on the Warriors’ next possession.

Before halftime, Curry made another 3-pointer and another scoop-shot layup, boosting his point total to 15.

The Warriors held the Jazz to 11 points until the final minute of the first quarter, and led 19-15 heading into the second. Utah shot 31.6 percent in the quarter and used its patient offense to keep the tempo slow.

The Warriors trimmed their magic number to two to clinch their first Pacific Division title since 1976. Any combination of Golden State wins and L.A. Clippers losses totaling two gives the Warriors reason to celebrate.

But will a team with higher expectations take a moment to soak in winning the division?

“We should absolutely celebrate it,” Kerr said. “That was one of our goals at the beginning of the season. We’re closing in on it. It’s a great accomplishment.”

The Warriors improved to 37-0 when holding their opponent under 100 points.