The Golden State Warriors capped off their five-game road trip today at the Palace of Auburn Hills to face the Detroit Pistons. The Warriors were looking to have their best road trip of a minimum of five games in 36 years, as well as nine straight wins, while the Pistons had Brandon Jennings back after a three-game absence due to injury, and trying to stop a seven-game losing streak.
David Lee was out again with the re-aggravated hamstring and Leandro Barbosa was listed as “probable”.
FIRST QUARTER — Unfocused, But Barbosa A Spark
The Warriors had trouble stringing together buckets from their offensive sets, as they’ve been accustomed to, as they had occasional lapses despite playing generally good defense.
Stephen Curry missed an early free throw, then Harrison Barnes appeared a bit lazy on a cut off an entry pass from former Duke University arch-rival Kyle Singler. Kantavious Caldwell-Pope, the Pistons’ starting two-guard, got a dunk on a fastbreak after a bad pass from Klay Thompson, trying to get the ball inside to Andrew Bogut. Finally, Draymond Green made an ill-advised behind-the-back interior pass attempt to Bogut, while ended up in the baseline seats.
A creative fake left-handed pass by Jennings, then delivery to Josh Smith for a dunk, and missed shots by Thompson inside the arc and Green and Andre Iguodala from beyond it, followed by a defensive three-second call on Green, made it 18-10 in favor of the Pistons with 4:30 remaining.
The Warriors were a combined 4-for-14 from the field with 3 turnovers. Jennings already had 7 points.
With Leandro Barbosa in for Thompson, Bogut got a putback on a Draymond miss, Curry had a beautiful drive capped off with a high-off-the-backboard banker over the helping big, and Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy tried to stop the Warriors’ sudden momentum with a timeout with 3:36 to go in the first, Detroit still up 18-14.
Then Barbosa turned on the “blur” and provided a spark, going with a low dribble right-to-left, charging down the right side of the court, with an early pass by Curry that gave Leandro just enough time to go “blur” mode.
After Marreese Speights blocked Pope at the rim, then again blocked Andre Drummond (albeit after throwing the first outlet to the wrong team), Green got an early-offense layup courtesy of Andre Iguodala‘s leading of the break. Barbosa followed that up with another leak on the break, tying the game at 20-20 with 1:43 to go and sparking a 10-2 Warriors run.
Barnes ended the quarter with some nice defense on Jennings trying to draw the foul with an up-fake with the shotclock winding down for Detroit. Barnes didn’t bite, kept his hands up, and the Warriors headed into the second period down just three, 24-21.
The Warriors had 10 of their 21 points on fastbreaks, but yielded eight free throws made (zero missed) by Detroit.
SECOND QUARTER — More focused!
In the second frame, the Warriors started to coalesce as a team. Among the many solid plays:
- Speights got a putback on a Barnes three-point miss.
- Iguodala got a nice block using his length to block an attack of the rim by DJ Augustin and kept the ball in play.
- Barnes put together a baseline “J”, then a pull-up on Smith, as the “stretch four”.
- Curry got into the lane and improvised on the fly, getting a push shot just above the defending Pistons big, with no one else in the paint to rebound. It was just an incredible display on thinking on the fly, in between steps, and getting off a shot that most players in the NBA couldn’t come up with, with a split-second to decide.
- Curry bothered a Smith attack in the lane just enough to make him miss. Curry did not get credit for a blocked shot on that one, however, and probably did miss touching the ball, but it was extremely effective help defense from nowhere.
- Thompson and Curry ran their familiar wheel around Bogut up top, but when Steph finally got the ball, he went over-the-head three-quarters-court, right-to-left, to Klay at the left elbow downtown, instead of the cutting Green, fooling almost everyone wearing a Pistons uniform. Thompson drained the three-pointer.
- Bogut did his high action again. This time, Green drifted out and Curry found him for the three-pointer.
- With the ball in the left corner, Barnes gave a fake and attacked the baseline, then dished it to Green for another three-pointer.
- Curry got a trey up top early in the offense, suddenly making it a 49-39 game with 1:40 to go in the half. The Pistons had gotten as close as 43-39.
Drummond got his third personal foul at the 4:25 mark with the Warriors up 37-32.
About the only two things that went wrong for the Warriors was Speights being too shy to shoot it on one rare occasion, throwing the ball away with the unneeded, errant extra pass, and Green miscalculating Curry, up 51-32 under a minute to go, throwing the ball into the Golden State bench on a fairly basic pass to the elbow.
Warriors assistant Alvin Gentry caught that bad pass and bounced the ball in frustration before handing it to the referee, while head coach Steve Kerr stared at the ceiling in disbelief of the rather bone-headed play.
Green got a runner to go at the buzzer, assisted by Curry, to atone for the turnover.
The Warriors headed into the break up 53-40. Green led the way with 13 points on 5-for-9 field, 3-for-4 downtown. Curry had 10 points and 7 assists. Speights 6 points, 8 rebounds, 2 blocks.
Jennings led Detroit with 11 but on just 2-for-10 from the floor.
The Warriors held the Pistons to just 28% shooting.
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