warriors game day (Photo: @therealriggi Instagram account)
ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — By #DubNation’s standards, the Golden State Warriors, with an otherwise healthy and starting Andrew Bogut were supposed to blow out the otherwise “hapless” Milwaukee Bucks, who sported the league’s worst record. However, that was hardly the case, as the Warriors were not able to pull away from the hard-fighting Bucks, but still won convincingly, 115-110.
The #SplashBrothers were in full tilt mode again, with Stephen Curry collecting 31 points on 9-for-14 from the field, 3-for-5 downtown, to go along with 11 assists. Klay Thompson played great again, going 11-for-23 albeit only 3-for-11 downtown. David Lee had another double with 22-and-12, and Bogut grabbed 12 rebounds.
Jordan Crawford added 12 off the bench, including an uplifting three-point buzzer beater at the end of the third, that gave the team momentum going into the final frame. However, Harrison Barnes was held scoreless, going 0-for-7 from the field, in his start in place of the injured Andre Iguodala.
PRE-GAME
Thompson got the autograph-signing early, while Draymond Green shot around with Brian Scalabrine.
In the pre-game press conference, Warriors coach Mark Jackson said, in response to a question about how Gregg Popovich prefers his players to call their own plays, “I don’t believe in calling plays (as a coach). I played seventeen years and you can count on one hand a coach told me what to run. The best teams that you’re on, the best players that you have, you gotta trust them.”
Erin Coscarelli TV anchor for CSN Bay Area, posted a picture on Twitter and was ready for the game.
Former North Carolina Tarheels teammates Barnes and John Henson reunited at the Bucks’ hotel and played video games earlier in the day.
IN-GAME
Early on, the game was tight. With 3:19 to go in the opening frame, it was Warriors 19, Bucks 18. Curry already had 7 points and 2 assists, while Bogut tallied 6 points and 6 rebounds.
By the end of the quarter, the Warriors stretched the lead out to 29-21 and #Roaracle was expecting the start of a blowout win. Three Dubs had 6 points each, to go along with 5 rebounds for Bogut and 4 rebounds for Lee.
By halftime, the Bucks cut the lead to 53-51 in favor of the Warriors and the consensus feeling by #DubNation on Twitter was that the Warriors were once again playing down to the competition. Curry led the way with 14 points and 6 assists, while Thompson added 13. Lee had 12 points and 8 rebounds by now.
With 7:35 to go in the third quarter, it was Warriors 61, Bucks 60. The Dubs actually came out of halftime hot, but then Milwaukee caught up. Again! Thompson led the way with 17 points.
At the end of the period, the Warriors led 82-75, with Crawford’s buzzer-beater stretching the cushion from 4 to 7. Thompson was finding his groove with 21 points on 9-for-19 from the field. Curry was up to 17 points and 11 assists.
With 5:58 to go, the Warriors held onto a 7-point lead, 97-90. Thompson was playing great on both ends of the court, while Lee got another double-double at 22-and-12. Curry had 20 points.
Curry had one of his signature one-handed, left-handed sling passes (the featured image of this post) that found Green wide open under the basket, except that Green blew the layup, only to find a cutting Thompson, who got fouled while attempting a dunk!
With 2:30 to go, the Warriors held the lead at two possessions, 104-98. Thompson was up to 26 points by now, but Curry’s 23rd, 24th, and 25th points but scored on a SportsCenter Top Ten play, getting wrangled yet still managing to lay the ball up, literally backwards towards the glass.
When all was said and done, the Warriors made their free throws on intentional desperation fouls by the Bucks, and sealed the deal, 115-110.
POST-GAME
When asked about why the Warriors were not able to put away the Bucks, at the post-game presser, Jackson recalled the Bird/McHale/Parish/DJ/Ainge-era Boston Celtics, where they’d be “on the sidelines iced up because they’ve separated themselves from us.” Jackson admitted the Dubs are simply not there yet, but at least they got the job done.
Thompson received high praise from Jackson for being a two-way player and responded, “I love it. It’s high praise. It’s great to what from Coach. It gives me a lot of confidence. It makes me want to work hard for him out there and it’s humbling.”
Lee was also disappointed that the Warriors did not dominate the lowly Bucks, but put things in perspective. “Most importantly this time of year is getting wins,” Lee said, “and we got two, maybe not in the best fashion, but a win is a win, so we’ll take it.”
Curry described his spectacular and-one play and said of his celebration after making the shot, “I have no idea what I did.”
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