Jonathan Kuminga grabbed an offensive rebound midway through the third quarter and passed the ball to Stephen Curry, who hit a 3-pointer from the “C” in the Heat Culture logo painted across midcourt.
The Golden State bench screamed in approval.
Many fans did the same thing. And this was not in San Francisco. It was in Miami.
The Warriors’ habit of winning more games on the road than at home continued on Tuesday night. Klay Thompson returned to the starting lineup and scored 28 points, with Kuminga adding 18, as the Warriors pulled away in the second half to defeat the still-shorthanded Miami Heat 113-92.
“Our assist to turnover ratio was really good,” Thompson said, referring to the Warriors’ postgame stat sheet, which showed 30 assists and 12 total turnovers. “That’s always a great indicator of if it’s a good night at the office.”
The Warriors are 18-19 at home and 19-15 on the road; they are on track to become the second club in NBA history to finish with a winning record while having a sub-.500 home record.
“You walk into any arena in the league on the road and there’s automatically blue and yellow jerseys all over the place,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr explained. “Steph’s got so many fans across the country and a lot of people cheer for him no matter where we are.”
Curry and Andrew Wiggins each scored 17 points for Golden State, which led by two at halftime and by as many as 22 in the fourth quarter.
Miami’s Bam Adebayo scored 24 points despite missing leading scorer Jimmy Butler due to sickness. The Heat were also without Tyler Herro (foot) for the 16th consecutive game, Kevin Love (heel) for the 14th consecutive game, and Duncan Robinson (back) for the fourth straight game.
Haywood Highsmith and Terry Rozier both scored 15 points for the Heat. Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 12 points, while Nikola Jovic had 11. Miami dropped to 2-16 when scoring less than 103 points.
“It helps when they’re missing their elite scorers,” Thompson added.
Thompson went 11 for 20 from the field, 6 for 14 from three, and scored his most points for the Warriors since February 15.
Miami pulled within 87-81 early in the fourth, but Golden State outscored the Heat 26-11 the rest of the way.
“We could never get it to the moment of truth,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. “And you have to credit Golden State.”
The Warriors (37-34) are now a full game clear of idle Houston in the Western Conference’s fight for 10th place and the last play-in slot.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Warriors center Kevon Looney admitted.
Miami (39-33) remained eighth in the Eastern Conference, tied with Philadelphia but one slot ahead of the 76ers thanks to a head-to-head tiebreaker. The loss also dropped Miami down 1 1/2 games behind Indiana in the race for the East’s sixth and final guaranteed postseason spot.