Matt Steinmetz

They say defense wins championships and maybe it does.

But offense won the Golden State Warriors their game on Friday night against the Pistons in Detroit. Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson all hit big shots late for Golden State and it was the difference in the 119-113 victory.

Whether it was Curry’s drive and 3-pointer with under four minutes left, Durant’s second-chance 3-pointer with under two minutes left or Thompson’s jumper and 3-pointer with under a minute left, the Warriors just put too much pressure on Detroit to keep scoring. And the Pistons just couldn’t do it.

Link to “Warriors WrapUp” from Golden State’s 119-113 win over Detroit on 95.7-FM The Game.

Among the topics discussed on the postgame show:

–The Warriors do a great job of lulling many teams into playing an uptempo game early, and kind of deceiving them into thinking they can have success that way. Usually you don’t “lull” a team into transition basketball, but the Warriors have a way of doing it, particularly when they’re on the road.

The Pistons are one of the most offensively challenged teams in the league, but they used their energy and emotion early to hang with the Warriors and their up-and-down style in the first half, and all game, quite frankly. But as the game moved along it became apparent that this was way more of a Warriors’ type of game than a Pistons’ type of game.

And this one ended with the Warriors scoring on five of their last six possessions to win the game.

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The Warriors play the Pistons in Detroit on Friday — with their Christmas Day showdown looming with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Draymond Green missed Thursday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets, but he will play against the Pistons. Which is what you’d figure since Green is a Saginaw, Mich., native. On 95.7-FM The Game, we were joined by Marcus Thompson II, a columnist for the Bay Area News Group. We caught up to Thompson before he headed off to Cleveland to cover the Warriors-Cavaliers game on Sunday.

Here’s a link to our interview with Marcus Thompson II.

Among our topics:

–It’s a hypothetical question but one that bears asking: Would the Warriors be the favorites to win it all — like they are now — if you took Green off this team? Thompson answers that question definitively.

–Green is a unique player to say the least. Thompson tries to make a comparison between Green and former New York Knicks power forward Anthony Mason. Green might be a better defender than Mason was, but they have some similarities when it comes to passing ability and ruggedness.

–J.R. Smith will miss three to four months for the Cavaliers. Thompson talks about what the loss of Smith will mean to Cleveland — and he doesn’t think it’s all bad.