The Golden State Warriors were at Time-Warner Cable Arena tonight to face the Charlotte Hornets in the hometown of Stephen Curry, where he’s averaged 29.5 points per game. The Warriors were looking to not only win their eighth straight game, but also hand the reeling Hornets their eighth straight loss.
David Lee was ruled out again due to his re-aggravated hamstring. Leandro Barbosa missed the game in Orlando two nights ago, but was green-lighted to play prior to today’s game.
FIRST QUARTER
Curry got his night off to a good start with an early triple for a splash, but signs of doldrums began to appear early as he committed a turnover shortly thereafter, and then so did Andrew Bogut, albeit after the Warriors got an offensive rebound.
The Warriors showed a little adjustment on the offensive system as, after Klay Thompson had ran the quasi-Triangle action with Bogut, Curry cut straight to the hole instead of doing the same, and Bogut fed him an easy assist for a layup.
Bogut also gave a nice off-ball screen for Thompson, who gave a fake to his helpless defender before receiving the ball, and easily canned the jumper. Bogut even made two free throws in a row after Al Jefferson had hacked him. The Warriors were in rhythm early, up 16-10.
Brandon Rush got in on an early sub, an obvious attempt by Warriors head coach Steve Kerr to get him going along with the starters, although Rush missed his first attempt. Andre Iguodala also came in for Harrison Barnes at the 4:38 mark.
Draymond Green got a little bit of a spark going on a lefty layup assisted by Curry. Green screamed for an and-one, but didn’t get the call. Green then followed that up with fast break layup.
Marreese Speights lived up to his “super-sub” label, getting a jumper and-one, but the Hornets kept things close with Jefferson scoring 8 in the quarter and Bismack Biyombo providing energy off the bench with 6 points and 3 rebounds in just less than four minutes of play.
Late in the quarter, Rush finally got an open three-pointer to fall after Speights got an offensive rebound off of a Shaun Livingston missed turnaround jumper from the opposite baseline.
Harrison Barnes got a buzzer-beater as he collected a loose ball after Speights got blocked at the rim, to make it 28-24, Warriors, at the end of the first frame.
SECOND QUARTER
In the second quarter, the Hornets strung together some three-pointers and jumpers against the Warriors’ second unit.
Golden State found itself in the counter-punching role as P.J. Hairston drilled a deep three to tie the game at 34-34 with 8:50 to go, and Brian Roberts used that momentum to his advantage, nailing another one from downtown after that.
For a brief moment after the Warriors’ starters came back in, with the exception of Iguodala for Green, the Dubs made some good plays, such as a Thompson cut assisted by Bogut, a Curry slap of the ball loose from Jason Maxiell, and Bogut playing the Hornets’ bigs well defending the rim, and Iguodala burying a triple after stealing a mishandle by Lance Stephenson. But Klay couldn’t find his rhythm and Curry picked up his 3rd personal foul after he couldn’t lay off a dribbling Kemba Walker, despite pleading to the ref that Walker pushed off.
Steph shook his head on the way to the bench with foul trouble, up just 41-40 and with 4:27 remaining.
Sure enough, the foul trouble helped the Hornets, as they went on a 10-0 run to take a 47-41 lead with 2:37 to go in the half, thanks to a Gerald Henderson jumper.
With Rush still in the game, Stephenson blew by him and drew a block on Green, who tried to draw the charge. It was a 50/50 call that didn’t go the Warriors way, as the refs had been calling ticky-tacks all night, such as an early offensive bad screen on Bogut for a hip check that barely grazed Walker trying to cover Curry off the pick.
Curry came back in as Stephenson drilled both free throws with 14.0 ticks left, but it was Livingston getting the pretty lefty layup to cut the deficit to 55-49 in favor of the Hornets just before the horn. Thankfully for the Warriors, Curry did not pick up his 4th personal, although he was near the ball at the desperation heave by Charlotte at the buzzer.
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