Warriors guard Poole erupts for career-high 43

TORONTO, Dec. 19 (Xinhua) -- Golden State Warriors guard Jordan Poole dropped a career-best 43 points in the team's 126-110 win over Toronto Raptors in Sunday evening's NBA game.

The defending champions were without All-Stars Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins, who were nursing respective shoulder and groin injuries.

Curry missed the last two games and is expected to miss up to a month, while Wiggins is nearing a return after being out for the past seven games.

During their absence, 23-year-old Poole has been promoted to the starting lineup and elevated his play. Since Dec. 3, Poole has averaged 24.3 points and 32.0 minutes in eight games as a starter, compared to 16.5 points in 27.3 minutes in the games prior.

The Warriors' head coach Steve Kerr was amazed at the effort from his fourth-year guard.

"He's played a lot of great games for us. If this isn't the best, it's definitely one of the few best," said Kerr after the win. "I thought he was patient offensively, he set the tone and carried us."

After his breakout year last season where he averaged 18.5 points in the regular season and 17.0 in the team's championship playoff run, Poole was rewarded with a four-year contract extension totaling 123 million U.S. dollars in the offseason.

With the win, the Warriors ended a three-game losing streak to improve to 15-16 on the season. The team also snapped a streak of five consecutive losses on the road to improve to a league-worst 3-14 in games outside of Chase Center.