Matt Steinmetz

The Warriors started out their five-game road trip with a strange one in Philly. A team known for taking a lot of 3-pointers and not many free throws could barely make a shot from beyond the arc and got to the line plenty.

The Warriors (50-8) beat the 76ers 119-108, despite going 6-for-29 from 3-point range (21 percent). They made up for it by getting to the foul line 39 times and making 33 of them (85 percent).

Link to “Warriors WrapUp,” the postgame radio show, will be posted when it becomes available.

Stephen Curry had one the worst shooting nights of his career, finishing 7-for-23 from the floor, including 0-for-11 from 3-point range. That’s the most number of 3s Curry’s ever taken in a game without a make.

Earlier this year Curry went 0-for-10 from beyond the arc in a loss to the Heat in Miami and 0-for-8 from 3-point range in a  loss to the Lakers. Zaza Pachulia, who finished with 16 points in 14 minutes, did a terrific job of finishing around the rim, going 5-for-5 from the floor and 6-for-7 from the foul line.

Kevin Durant had 27 points for the Warriors, Klay Thompson had 21 and Draymond Green had 14 points, 11 assists and five steals. It was the seventh straight time the Warriors beat Philadelphia.

Link: Is Draymond Green the best defender in NBA history?

Philly center Jahlil Okafor did something that you don’t see everyday — he had seven turnovers in just 17 minutes. The Warriors play the Wizards in Washington on Monday, their first of three back-to-backs in the next 13 days.

The Warriors have now won 50 games in four consecutive years.

I’ll admit it, a few years back I thought Warriors forward Draymond Green was just OK. This was back when he was cramping David Lee’s style and we were getting into early talk of contract extension and playing time and starting or not starting, etc.

Yes, you saw he was going to be productive in stretches but was he going to be able to be productive over 36 minutes? He could do it in a limited role — 6-8 minutes at a time, but he was still undersized and still essentially a tweener.

So, yeah, I never thought he’d turn into the greatest defensive player in NBA history. OK, if not the greatest, the second-greatest. Or the greatest of this era. That’s not coming from me. That’s coming from someone who played with and against Bill Russell, considered the greatest defensive player in league history.

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This was a punch-the-clock, take-care-of-business game for the Golden State Warriors. And that’s exactly what they did, though they were a little bit late to work and didn’t really put in a full day. Facing a brutal upcoming two-week stretch, the Warriors  handled the Brooklyn Nets 112-95 on Saturday at Oracle, and now it’s time to begin traversing the United States.

The Nets (9-49), with the worst record in the NBA, led the Warriors (49-9), with the best record in the NBA, 46-45 with four minutes left in the second quarter. But they were on the short end of a 17-5 run to end the period and went into intermission down 62-51.

From there, the Warriors remained in control, though they were never able to put the Nets all the way away. With the victory, the Warriors clinched a playoff spot — the earliest date that a team has clinched a postseason berth. Last year, Golden State clinched on Feb. 27.

Nevertheless, something didn’t seem quite right in the Warriors’ locker room after.

Link to “Warriors WrapUp,” the radio postgame show.

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