Now they can get greedy.
The Warriors won for the 12th time in their last 15 games and made it seven in a row on the road Tuesday night with a 110-99 win over the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Now 31-27, the Warriors visit Toronto Friday night with a chance to win their third game on the four-game road trip when they face a team with a 22-37 record.
Stephen Curry, who came into the game in a mini-slump over his last three games, hit eight 3-point baskets and led the Warriors with 31 points, with forward Jonathan Kuminga adding 25.
New York, a shell of itself in recent weeks with the losses of power forward Julius Randle and OG Anunoby to injury, lost for the eighth time in their last 11 games and fell to 35-25. Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with 27 points.
Should the Warriors take care of business against Toronto, all that remains on the road trip is a Sunday afternoon date in Boston against the Celtics, the top team in the Eastern Conference with a 46-12 record and 27-3 at home.
The Warriors never trailed in the game, taking charge at the outset with stout defense even if the offensive performance was uneven throughout. Much of their damage was done in the paint, while other than Curry, the 3-point shooting was a problem.
Curry was 8-for-18 on 3-pointers, with the rest of the roster going 6-for-27.
New York shot just 36.8 percent from the floor (35-for-95) and was 12 of 39 from 3-point land.
The Warriors’ hot-and-cold tendencies were on display in the third quarter, at one point rebuilding their lead to as much as 17 points before seeing New York close within 73-67 with a 13-2 run. When the quarter ended, the Warriors took an 80-70 lead into the fourth quarter.
Curry, who had six made field goals in the win over Washington to start the road trip, had six in the first half against the Knicks including 4-for-8 from 3-point range for 17 points. He also had 10 rebounds, seven of them coming in the game’s first five minutes. Kuminga had 14 points at the half for the Warriors.
The Knicks had to feel good about getting the lead under 10 points at the half after hitting just a third (16 of 48) of their shots from the field. Ex-Warrior Donte DiVincenzo and Josh Hart led New York with 11 points each with Brunson adding nine in he opening half.
The Warriors led 31-19 after the first quarter and it could have been more. The Knicks were just 6-for-22 shooting and 3-for-11 on 3-point attempts, with Curry getting 11 in the first quarter and nailing his first three 3-pointers.
It wasn’t as though the Warriors were lighting it up, hitting just 12 of their first 27 shots. They missed at least three layup attempts and a number of other shots with good looks that didn’t fall.
The Warriors scored the first 14 points with New York missing its first nine shots, and had leads of 17-2 and 20-4 before the Knicks got anything going.
WHERE’S WIGGINS?: Forward Andrew Wiggins missed his second consecutive game due to undisclosed personal reasons. Talking with reporters before the game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr shed no light on the reason for Wiggins’ absence other than to say the absence as excused and that he and director of medicine/performance Rick Celebrini have spoken with him.
“This is a personal issue he’s dealing with and we expect him back, but it will remain private,” Kerr said.
Wiggins missed the final 25 games of the regular season a year ago for undisclosed reasons and returned to play in all 13 playoff games.
