体坛英语新闻：Warriors crush Grizzlies in best-of-West showdown

LOS ANGELES, March 28 (Xinhua) -- Stephen Curry fired in 17 of his 38 points in the third quarter, propelling the visiting Golden State Warriors past the Memphis Grizzlies 107-84 in the best-of-West showdown on Friday.

Klay Thompson netted 28 for Warriors, the Pacific Division champions (59-13), who buried 16-of-31 triples en route to franchise-record 25th road win of the season and their eighth straight victory..

Warriors led 54-49 at halftime before Curry single-handedly outscored the Grizzlies by a point in a dominant 31-16 third quarter, nailing four 3-pointers.

Thompson knocked down two more from behind the arc, helping the

Warriors open up an 85-65 entering the final quarter.

Jeff Green and Mike Conley netted 16 points apiece for Memphis

(50-23), whose lead atop the Southwest Division was reduced to

one-half game over Houston following a second straight blowout loss

after Wednesday's 111-88 defeat to Cleveland.

James Harden scored 33 points, including six of his team's 20 triples, in Houston Rockets' 120-110 win over Minnesota Timberwolves.

Dwight Howard netted 18 and the Rockets (49-23) secured a playoff

spot after trimming the visiting Timberwolves (16-56), who received

31 points from Andrew Wiggins.

Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez scored 20 points apiece, and the Brooklyn Nets (31-40) stopped the visiting Cleveland Cavaliers' four-game success 106-98 to remain a half game behind Boston for the final playoff spot in the East.

Kyrie Irving topped Cleveland (47-27) with 26 points, while LeBron

James finished with 24 and nine assists.

DeMarre Carroll scored 24 points and Germany's Dennis Shroeder had 12 points, 11 assists as the Atlanta Hawks (55-17) clinched the top spot in the East by beating the visiting Miami Heat (33-39) 99-98, which remained the seventh playoff seed.

John Wall dropped in seven of his game-high 32 points in the second overtime, and the Washington Wizards (41-32) snapped a four-game slide after escaping the Charlotte Hornets (30-41) 110-107.

Boris Diaw scored seven of his 19 points in a 17-2 fourth quarter run, and the San Antonio Spurs (46-26) routed the Dallas Mavericks (45-28) 94-76 to move 1.5 games ahead of their Texas rivals for the seventh playoff seed in the West.