The Golden State Warriors headed to OKC to visit the Oklahoma City Thunder, thus embarking on a five-game road trip.
The Thunder, of course, have been without their two superstars, Russell Westbrook (broken hand) and Kevin Durant (broken foot).
FIRST QUARTER
The Warriors shot just 9-for-23 from the field, missing a lot of layups, in the first frame. Draymond Green made an immediate case for “Splash Triplet” as he nailed an early-offense trey, to go along with Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry‘s early on as well.
Andrew Bogut got an early alley oop dunk from Curry, but that would be one of the few makes at the rim til the end of the quarter.
Green missed a layup even though Thompson lofted him a touchdown pass, then Thompson missed a dunk streaking in from the right elbow, then missed another layup after dissecting the defense with hesitation dribbles and attacking left-handed from up top.
Curry had a gorgeous spin towards the baseline after driving into the interior with his left hand, but that one didn’t go in, either.
Still, the Dubs were up, 21-12, with 4:15 to go after Thompson started the break after a steal and executed a fundamentally sound bounce pass to Curry, who went with long strides on the reverse layup to avoid the OKC defense. Curry finally drilled a three-pointer off of high switch action. He had gotten a couple of iso’s on Serge Ibaka prior to that, but couldn’t cash in from the long range.
Leandro Barbosa was a spark off the bench, although he, too, had a bit of the layup-miss bug. However, he got to the line after a beautiful steal. On the free throws, he waved off head coach Steve Kerr, who thought Barbosa might be winded and was about to insert Shaun Livingston.
Golden State went about three minutes without a field goal when — who else? — Marreese Speights hit a clutch jumper from the right elbow, about 17 feet out, with just five seconds left on the shotclock.
Speights then took a charge on Kendrick Perkins, then found himself open on the post after rolling on a pick. Rather than hurry the shot with his back to the basket, Speights gathered himself and monstered in a layup with the harm.
The Warriors led 28-20 going into the second quarter. Curry played all but the last three seconds, netting 12 points and 3 assists. Speights added 6 points and the Warriors committed just one turnover. Still, they were just 9-for-23 from the floor and 7-for-11 from the charity stripe.
SECOND QUARTER
The Warriors apparently caught the injury bug from the Thunder during the first frame, as Bogut and Barbosa were both announced as out for the rest of the game. Bogut suffered an orbital contusion from an elbow by Kendrick Perkins while Barbosa went out with a bruised knee.
As you’ll recall, David Lee had already been ruled out with his re-strained hamstring, although he did fly with the team. Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group tweeted before tipoff that Lee would also be out for the game Tuesday at the Miami Heat.
So head coach Steve Kerr opted to put the burden on backup center Festus Ezeli. However, with a stagnant offense with seven minutes to go, up 35-30, Kerr called timeout and went small with Green at the “5”. Thompson got a three out of the lineup, but with the Thunder staying big, Kerr got Speights back in quickly thereafter.
The #SplashBrothers did what they could to maintain the small cushion, as the duo combined for 27 of the Warriors’ 49 first-half points, but Ezeli was having trouble catching line drives from Curry, Green got blocked easily at the rim by Ibaka, and Reggie Jackson slammed home a right-handed “and-one” on Ezeli out of a timeout.
Golden State took a slim 52-47 margin into the second half. Thompson had 16 points on 4-for-7 from downtown, Curry had 14 on 5-for-8 from the field and 2-for-4 from beyond the arc, and Speights had 12 points on 5-for-7 from the floor, although he was just 2-for-5 from the free throw line.
Jackson led the Thunder with 12 points and Ibaka had 3 blocked shots.
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