The Golden State Warriors traveled to South Beach to face the Miami Heat tonight, the second of five consecutive games on an East Coast road trip.
David Lee was still ruled out due to his re-aggravated hamstring. Andrew Bogut and Leandro Barbosa were at first listed as “questionable”, but were available to play. In the win against the Oklahoma City Thunder two nights ago, Bogut suffered an orbital contusion as a result of an inadvertent elbow by Kendrick Perkins, while Barbosa suffered a sprained knee.
FIRST QUARTER
With the Heat not having a true center and Chris Andersen and Dwyane Wade injured, the consensus was that this game would be fast-paced affair, especially if Bogut was going to sit out. But he played and showed his value immediately, protecting the rim on a Mario Chalmers layup. Stephen Curry hit a transition three on the ensuing possession.
The skillset from the big man would be on display again, as Bogut would take a defensive rebound on the dribble down the floor, went lefty bounce to the left baseline, and delivered a behind-the-back assist to the interior to a cutting Klay Thompson for the bucket.
After that, Bogut lobbed a backdoor pass to Draymond Green, then posted up Chris Bosh on the left side and went up-and-under with the left hand, good for two. Then Bogut got a dunk on an assist from Curry. Finally, Bogut set the second of a double-pick for Curry as Green handed the ball off to start the action, and Curry drilled the open trey from the top. The Warriors were up early, 19-12, with 6:30 to go, and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra had to call timeout.
Bogut was doing it on both ends of the floor as he bit on Bosh’s left elbow jumper fake and recovered to block the actual jumper, as Miami ended up committing a shotclock violation.
But Green missed his second of two layup chances, the first of which was punished by an ensuing Bosh trey, and this time Luol Deng drove on Andre Iguodala, who had checked in for Harrison Barnes with about five minutes to go, and Deng got an and-one with the left hand. All of a sudden, Miami was up, 22-21.
It would go further downhill from there for the Warriors.
Green then committed a questionable offensive foul on a screen where his legs got tangled with those of Shabazz Napier. Curry had Bosh switched on him and was displaying a series of pretty crossover moves when the whistle was called, in the process of going behind the back left-to-right, towards the hole.
The ensuing sequence was an and-one by James Ennis, once again on Iguodala.
Add to that two straight missed free throws by Leandro Barbosa, a desperation fade-away trey by Mario Chalmers with the shot clock buzzing, and two more missed free throws by Green, and the Warriors found themselves down by 10.
But a Barbosa dove for a steal at halfcourt, shoveled it to Green, who got it Barnes for a slam dunk, plus a tip-in at the buzzer by Barbosa, got the Warriors back to within six, 36-30, at the end of the quarter.
SECOND QUARTER
In the second frame, the Heat totaled 7-for-10 from the three-point line and got their lead up to as many as 16 points, but the Warriors fought back.
After a mini-drought and a costly turnover, Klay Thompson finally hit a trey to cut the lead to 54-41, Heat, with 5:25 to go.
Then, in transition, Curry had the ball and Napier on him crossing halfcourt. Bosh met the two at the three-point line, but Curry went crossover right-to-left and fired from the arc, good:
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After that, Bogut forced Bosh to shoot an airball and Curry got a driving high-arcing finger roll to go on the other end, to make it 54-48 with 4:10 to go.
After a second turnover by Thompson that led to a Miami runout fastbreak, the Warriors built some more momentum with Curry blocking Norris Cole from behind after getting beat on the first step. Marreese Speights got a layup thanks to Thompson getting into the interior using his left shoulder, and Iguodala hit a three from the left elbow with the cross-court assist by Klay.
Thompson got a turnaround post up, Green got two free throws on a Josh McRoberts rebounding foul, and Green got a block at the buzzer and the Warriors were right back in it, down 62-61 at the half.
Stay tuned for the second half recap!
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