On Friday, the Golden State Warriors got crushed by the Oklahoma City Thunder in a game where Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler III, Draymond Green, and De’Anthony Melton were all unavailable. In the recap of that game, I wrote the following:

The Warriors did, in fact, flirt with those problems in the first half of their Saturday game against the Jazz. But no harm, no foul, as the Dubs used a dominant second half to coast to a 123-114 victory — their sixth in their last eight games.

Despite the return of their three core players, it wasn’t a pretty start for the Warriors … or for the Jazz, for that matter. Neither team could score to open the game, and while Utah finally dropped in the first four points, the Dubs responded with seven unanswered. But then the offensive well went fully dry. The Warriors were shooting at a decent clip, but — stop me if you’ve heard this before — couldn’t stop turning the ball over. At the halfway mark they trailed 18-10 and had made just three buckets, and when the quarter ended, they trailed 29-25.

It was clear from the get-go that Utah’s strategy was to slow Curry and make anyone else beat them, and for a while it worked. Curry was deferential in the first half, but the results weren’t particularly good. The turnovers (the Dubs had 10 of them in the half) kept coming in the second quarter, while the shots came and went.

And then came the moment that could make or break the Warriors. A series of self-inflicted wounds, mixed with some brilliance from Lauri Markkanen, led to the Jazz holding an eight-point lead as we approached the 2:30 mark in the half. Utah had the ball and scored in the lane, pushing the lead to 10.

There was just one issue: it appeared the Jazz had spent enough time in the lane to warrant not just one, but two three-second violations. They had gone uncalled by the refs … but not by Green. Draymond stayed behind to berate the refs for the missed calls, and was quickly awarded a pair of technical fouls, resulting in yet another ejection.

Without knowing what Green said — there are certainly some words that warrant quick techs — it felt like the penalties came very quickly. But it was also a situation that he shouldn’t have put himself or the team in. And as Markkanen sank the pair of technical free throws, the margin ballooned to 12 points. It was clear that the Warriors, now down their top defender, would either shrink with the moment or rise to the challenge they had created for themselves.

Thankfully they chose the latter. Golden State immediately found life and energy, and while the Jazz still had a few big plays in them, the score was trimmed to 65-68 at the break.

When the Warriors emerged from the tunnel in the third — with Gary Payton II starting in place of the ejected Green — they brought with them a different philosophy. Curry, who had made just two baskets and scored nine points in the first half, abandoned the deferential mode, and instead took matters into his own hands. To the surprise of no one, it worked wonders.

The Warriors came out with energy, and Curry was creating things left and right, using his scoring to set up his passing and then getting right back to scoring. An early 11-2 run gave them the lead at the 7:35 mark as Curry made highlight play after highlight play. Suddenly, the Dubs had pushed the lead to seven points.

Despite not playing the entire frame, Curry dominated it, and dropped in 20 points in the third alone. Even with a fairly chaotic end to the quarter, that explosion was enough for the Warriors to flip the script, and turn the seven-point halftime deficit into a four-point lead entering the final frame.

At that point, the Warriors had a task that has proved daunting to them all year: hold onto a fourth-quarter lead with Curry on the sideline. And thanks to a pair of youngsters, they were able to do just that. Rookie Will Richard had huge plays all over the court to open the fourth, while second-year center Quinten Post played phenomenal defense. With those two leading the charge, the Warriors pushed their lead to double digits in the first few minutes.

From there, they coasted. They handed Curry a comfortable lead when he returned and, despite the best efforts of Markkanen and Co., Golden State never really looked in danger of squandering the lead (what a welcome sight that was). They at one point pushed the lead to 13 points, before settling in with a tidy nine-point victory.

Curry finished with a team-high 31 points and five assists, while shooting 8-for-18 from the field, 6-for-12 from deep, and a perfect 9-for-9 from the charity stripe. Butler and Post each finished with 15 points, with the former adding three rebounds, seven assists, and three steals, and the latter five rebounds and two assists with excellent efficiency. Melton was phenomenal off the bench, notching 13 points with seven rebounds, two assists, and two steals. Moses Moody played strong defense en route to a team-best +16, while Payton grabbed eight rebounds and Brandin Podziemski came off the bench for six boards and eight dimes. Notably, Jonathan Kuminga, Buddy Hield, and Pat Spencer all received DNP-CDs.

Markkanen led the Jazz with 35 points on 18-for-27 shooting, while Keyonte George continued his breakout campaign with 22 points and nine assists, though the Dubs forced him into seven turnovers. The ageless wonder Kevin Love got the start for Utah with Walker Kessler and Jusuf Nurkić injured, and while he only had five points, he predictably pulled down 10 rebounds.

The Warriors are now 19-17 on the season, and after playing five games in seven days, they’ll thankfully get Sunday off to lazy and watch some football … and do some light traveling, as they visit the LA Clippers on Monday night at 7:00 p.m. PT. After that, the Warriors are back home for eight consecutive home games … and that’s a stretch that could define the season.