NBA: Stephen Curry secures Golden State Warriors’ vital victory

Stephen Curry secured a much needed victory for the Golden State Warriors in their NBA play-off series.

With 33 points, the Warriors ended a two-game losing streak to level their NBA play-off series against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Curry, who was named the league’s Most Valuable Player earlier this month, scored 21 points in the first-half to help the Warriors to a 101-84 win and avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season.

Victory sees the Western Conference top seeds reclaim home advantage, with two of the remaining three games in the series taking place at the Oracle Arena in Oakland.

Draymond Green had 16 points and 10 rebounds for the Warriors while Klay Thompson had 15 points, Harrison Barnes 12 and Andre Iguodala 11.

Marc Gasol contributed 19 points and 10 rebounds for Memphis while Zach Randolph had 12 points and 11 rebounds. Point guard Mike Conley finished with 10 points and seven assists but was only 4-of-15 from the field. Memphis pulled its starters with three minutes left.

Jeff Teague scored 26 points for the Atlanta Hawks as they levelled their Eastern Conference series with the Washington Wizards thanks to a 106-101 victory.

Paul Pierce missed a three-point attempt that would have levelled the game with less than 10 seconds left, just two days after hitting a buzzer-beater to win Game Three.

The Hawks led most of the game, but Washington cut the deficit to 101-97 with under two minutes remaining before Teague’s three-pointer with 72 seconds left got the margin back to seven.

Washington’s Bradley Beal blocked a shot by Dennis Schroder in the lane to keep Atlanta’s lead at 104-101, and the Wizards had the ball and called a timeout with just 9.5 seconds remaining. They got Pierce an open look from deep, but his shot came off the rim. Beal led all scorers with 34 points.

Both series continue on Wednesday.