A lot of people like to get bombed on New Year’s Eve. The Golden State Warriors bombed away from three-point range instead, draining 24 three-pointers in a 132-125 win over the Charlotte Hornets. Steph
Curry led the way with five triples and 26 points in a game where 10 different Warriors connected on shots from behind the arc.
The Dubs traveled to Curry Country, North Carolina on Wednesday for their second day game of a three-game road trip to close out 2025. They played a game at 1 PM local time, because as you get older, you celebrate New Year’s Eve earlier and earlier, and the aging Warriors are no exception. They faced a young and explosive Charlotte Hornets team that plays no one older than 26 years old. Charlotte outran the Warriors at times and shot 40% from deep themselves, but even getting 80 points from the trio of Brandon Miller, LaMelo Ball, and Kon Knueppel couldn’t get them a win as the Warriors took over down the stretch.
Draymond Green responded to rumors he could be packaged in a deal for Anthony Davis by delivering 10 points, eight rebounds, and 12 assists. He was a game-high +18 in his 28 minutes and made a series of huge plays late to ensure the victory. After entering the game with 3:45 to go, Green assisted on two baskets, then made a three-pointer to give the Warriors an eight-point lead. When the Hornets got within four points, Curry missed a three-pointer, but Green got the tip-in. Can a tip-in be a dagger? If so, this was a dagger.
Brandin Podziemski was sitting in crunch time in favor of a closing lineup featuring De’Anthony Melton and rookie Will Richard alongside Curry, Butler, and Green, but he got the Warriors a lead earlier in the quarter with three clutch three-pointers, before he committed an offensive foul turnover and got benched the rest of the way. Podz finished with 19 points on just nine shots (6-for-9, 5-for-7 on threes) with three assists and only a single turnover.
The first half was close and featured many lead changes, thanks largely to the Warriors committing 11 turnovers — they finished with 19 for the game — with the Hornets picking up 19 points directly following the turnovers. Golden State cleaned things up somewhat in the second half, despite a few overly-ambitious passes and a late play where Curry dribbled the ball off his foot while being bear-hugged by two Hornets.
Charlotte had a slight lead thanks to a big scoring effort from Miller (22 first-half points), but the first half ended with a 10-2 Warriors run, spurred by a dual effort from Curry and his favorite power forward, Gui Santos. Curry threw in a shot when he rightly thought he was fouled, and got a banked-in two but no whistle.
On the other end, Santos blocked Kon Knueppel after a very solid team defensive effort, which led to a Curry three-ball. One possession later, Santos corralled an offensive rebound off a Curry miss and sank a three of his own, with a timely assist from Will Richard. Santos finished with 13 points in 17 minutes, along with five rebounds, two assists, and a block, going 3-for-4 from distance.
The run continued into the second half, despite the Warriors’ efforts to give Charlotte chances with wild, intercepted long passes. The Dubs began the third quarter on a 10-0 run while the Hornets turned the ball over three different ways (stolen pass, backcourt violation, offensive foul) and lost Moussa Diabate to an injury along the way.
The Hornets still aren’t a good basketball team, but with Miller and Ball healthy, alongside rookie phenom Knueppel, they’ve become an excellent offensive team, averaging 123 points in their last four games. They’re fifth in the NBA in three-pointers behind Knueppel and Collin Sexton, who spearheaded a 25-9 run that got the Hornets an 89-88, capped by back-to-back threes from Ball, who went 4-for-4 in the quarter and 7-for-10 in the game, finishing with 27 points, and five rebounds, assists, and turnovers, plus three steals.
It simply looked like Charlotte was playing harder than Golden State, with Warriors players getting beat after stopping to argue calls and jogging out of the backcourt, while players like Sexton simply ran past them.
After the Hornets took a five-point lead, Steve Kerr seemed to respond with an “Effort Squad” lineup of Santos, Richard, De’Anthony Melton, Pat Spencer, and Al Horford. Charlotte countered with a lineup of three rookies, 20-year-old sophomore Tidjane Salaun, and the aged Josh Green, who turned 25 a month ago. Charlotte went into the final quarter up 100-98 after a 36-29 third.
A key moment in Charlotte’s run came when Curry lost his mouthpiece and missed an easy layup. It was like seeing Dumbo the Flying Elephant lose his magic feather and crash down onto the circus floor to his death (that’s only in the director’s cut).
Miller has missed half of Charlotte’s games this season, but he gives them a driving and dunking threat they don’t have elsewhere on the roster. He and Knueppel were both too big for Gary Payton II to defend, which is how he ended up -9 in a game where he was a perfect 4-for-4 from the floor.
Golden State finishes the 2025 calendar year with a record of 50-34, and 18-16 on the season, putting them in 8th place, comfortably ahead of the 9th-place Memphis Grizzlies. They went 2-1 on their road trip and now will not leave the state of California for three weeks, playing 10 of their next 11 games at home and only traveling south to play the Clippers in a Jan. 5 game that will feature Snoop Dogg as an announcer.
Basically, this is the time to make and keep their New Year’s resolutions about cutting down on turnovers, not leaving shooters wide open in the corner, and being nicer to European big men when the referees are watching. That last one is for you, Draymond! But all in all, he and the team had a nice game to close out a weird Warriors year.
