The Golden State Warriors beat the New York Knicks 111-101 at the Chase Center in San Francisco, California, on Friday, to secure their seventh win. The defending champions are still two wins away from reaching .500 of win percentage.

The Warriors had the perfect start at home on both offense and defense. Klay Thompson shot 4-for-6 from downtown, including making three triples, in the first quarter to score 11 points. Stephen Curry, instead of having to carrying the team from the beginning, was having an easy time feeding his teammates with five assists.

On defense, though the Knicks made the Warriors sweat with their size and athleticism to earn 10 free throws, their field goal (FG) touch was bad enough to go 2-for-15 in jumpers, including missing all 10 triples. The team also committed five turnovers in this quarter and trailed 35-19.

The Warriors continued to extend their lead in the second quarter and to 22 points (58-36) at most, but then came the classic Warriors' way of wasting the lead: Making bad calls on offense with awful shooting choices, and then allowing easy points by the opponents via fast break. The Knicks' counterstrike began from 2:38 in the second quarter and didn't stop until they cut their deficit down to 10 points (64-54) at 8:50 in the third quarter.

Fortunately for the Warriors, they didn't panic; they had a Curry with better strength; and the Knicks didn't have an efficient system that could keep running without making mistakes. The Warriors again began to move the ball in a more reasonable way like they did in the first quarter, enabling JaMychal Green to make three easy shots next to the rim; Curry made two 3-pointers in this quarter to get 10 points while adding another three assists; the Knicks had four turnovers while missing 11 of their 13 jump shot attempts, including eight from deep.

The same scenario repeated itself in the fourth quarter. The Knicks managed to narrow their difference down to as small as eight points, but that was the closest they ever got. The team's poor spacing, which was reflected in their 3-point shooting performance of 9-for-34, forced Julius Randle, RJ Barrett and Jalen Brunson to keep charge the paint. However, the Warriors closed in so hard on the defensive end that the Knicks couldn't even reach 50 percent of FG rate in the restricted area.

As for the Warriors, Friday's victory showed how dominant they could be when their touch was normal – the team went 18-for-50 in triples – and could stay focused during most of the time on the court. The question is, why couldn't they do so on the road, where they lost all eight games.

Other games on Friday (away teams come first):

Charlotte Hornets 122-132 Cleveland Cavaliers

Darius Garland played his best game for the Cavaliers since he returned from a left eye injury. 24 of his 26 FG attempts on Friday night at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse were jumpers and he made 15 of them to score court-high points. He also had five steals. Garland's back-court partner Donovan Mitchell also contributed 34 points.

The Hornets managed to match the Cavaliers in all four quarters and even the first overtime (OT) with their efforts on offensive rebounds and fast break. Nonetheless, they seemed to have finally run out of strength in the second OT during which the team made only one field goal and nothing else.

Milwaukee Bucks 102-110 Philadelphia 76ers

Having claimed their third straight win at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the 76ers lifted their win percentage over .500 (8-7). Joel Embiid carried on his recent good form to drop 32 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists for the 76ers. Though he only earned eight free throws, which was much fewer than his season average number (11.8), Embiid shot to kill in the middle range, where he shot 9-for-16 from the field.

By contrast, Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Bucks maintained his aggressiveness to get 15 free throws, but he only made four of them. That was even worse than his jumper FG rate (4-for-11, 36.4 percent). He decided to do some free throw shooting practice after the loss, but had an argument with the home court working staff.

A Wells Fargo Center employee pushed a ladder in front of the hoop Antetokounmpo was shooting. The Bucks superstar asked him to move the ladder twice but the employee said no both times. Then Antetokounmpo went to knock the ladder twice before it was down. The scene was recorded by a 76ers fan at the arena.

Antetokounmpo then went to shoot at the other end of the court, but the 76ers' backup center Montrezl Harrell took his basketball away before throwing some trash talks on Antetokounmpo.

Boston Celtics 117-109 New Orleans Pelicans

The Celtics continued to lead the NBA after securing their ninth straight win at Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The team built a 15-point lead (40-25) in the first quarter and then spent the following three quarters watching the Pelicans trying come back and fail. Though the team's ace Jayson Tatum shot poorly (6-for-18 in FGs), the rest of the team went 18-for-36 at the 3-point line. Derrick White and Al Horford combined to drain 10 triples for the team.

The Pelicans saw their three-game winning-streak come to an end at home. They worked hard to drive up the speed of the game, which fit the young franchise. Scoring 24 points via fast break was good, but not good enough to wipe the huge gap between them and the Celtics in slower and more complicated half-court offense.

Miami Heat 106-107 Washington Wizards

Orlando Magic 108-107 Chicago Bulls

Indiana Pacers 99-91 Houston Rockets

Oklahoma City Thunder 110-121 Memphis Grizzlies

Denver Nuggets 99-127 Dallas Mavericks

Phoenix Suns 133-134 Utah Jazz

Detroit Pistons 121-128 Los Angeles Lakers