This is a continuation of the first half recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Detroit Pistons.
THIRD QUARTER — Click, Lapse, (Curry Ankle) Tweak
The Warriors started to click in the third quarter, as Draymond Green hit two more three-pointers to tie high his career-high of five from downtown (set last season in Game 7 against the Los Angeles Clippers), the second of which was thanks to three Pistons turning their attention to Stephen Curry‘s ball-handling.
The Dubs sported a 65-42 lead with still more than nine minutes to play. To make matters worse for the Pistons, Andre Drummond was just 1-for-8 from the floor and headed to the bench.
Then something funny happened. Green’s next three-point attempt was an airball and, somehow, the Pistons suddenly played like they still wanted to win the game somehow.
Back-to-back Detroit buckets from downtown by Kantavious Caldwell-Pope, then Kyle Singler, forced Warriors head coach Steve Kerr to call timeout with 6:36 to go.
Pope would bury two more threes en route to a 14-point personal performance in the third quarter alone. Meanwhile, Curry tweaked his ankle trying to cut back on defense on the shifty Brandon Jennings, as Jennings nailed a three-pointer.
Pope could’ve made things even more interesting by drawing a foul near the end the quarter, on a step-back jumper from downtown in which a recovering Leandro Barbosa couldn’t stop himself and couldn’t allow Pope to land, but Pope missed two out of the three foul shots and the Warriors took an 82-71 lead into the fourth period.
There were a couple highlights for the Warriors:
- Curry led an errant pass to Green in the corner, but Green corralled it and threw the ball back in high to Klay Thompson on the right side. Klay leapt high for it, took one dribble, and had his mind already made up to pivot and shoot the trey. It went through and helped keep push the lead from 16 to 19 at the time.
- Harrison Barnes had a strong, dominant-looking, turnaround jumper with the shotclock winding down from the elbow over a draped Singler.
- Josh Smith made a bad pass, Barnes got the steal, and immediately got an outlet to the man known for leaking out, Barbosa, for the layup. It was Barbosa’s third leak-out of the game, as he sparked the team twice in the first quarter in similar fashion.
- Marreese Speights powered his way for a strong two with 26 ticks left, assist to Shaun Livingston.
FOURTH QUARTER — Closing It Out, Although Not Blowing It Open
The Warriors took care of business, although it wasn’t all that pretty, in the fourth. Curry started the quarter, also with a sleeve on a cut right elbow, not to mention the tweaked ankle.
However, Curry would check out at the 8:38 mark, re-tie his shoe, but not return. Kerr told him that he would not be returning, so Curry went to the locker room to get X-rays, which were negative.
Meanwhile, it was Livingston, Thompson, Iguodala, Green, and Andrew Bogut who closed out the game.
Just when you thought the Warriors would blow the roof off, Thompson would commit another jumping turnover, but in true “here-you-have-it” passive basketball, Greg Monroe would come back on the other end for the Pistons with a missed point-blank shot. Livingston answered that with a runner that was nothing doing. Later, Kerr would call the “elevators” play for Thompson, but Bogut was called for a hip-check on the side-to-side double-screen.
The Warriors couldn’t put the Pistons away, but the Pistons didn’t want it, either.
Cartier Martin got a trey to pull the Pistons to within twelve at 94-82 with 4:33 to go, but Drummond got called for a technical for shove-fouling Green after a foul was already called, to prevent the after-the-fact layup that wouldn’t have counted anyways. It was just a little bit too much physicality for the referee.
So the double-digit cushion was more than enough, although without Curry and ready to board the plane back home, the Warriors didn’t exactly have the killer instinct.
Still, Golden State ended the game with some nice plays, most notably Livingston making a couple buckets, one going strong on the baseline, stopping, faking a pass, and getting the layup. Bogut recorded his fifth blocked shot on his former teammate Jennings, and Livingston capped off the final score of 104-93 with a layup, assisted by Bogut.
In his homecoming to Michigan, Green led the Warriors with 20 points on 7-for-13 field, 5-for-8 downtown, and 6 rebounds. Curry added 16 points, 10 assists, 1 turnover. Thompson had 15 points on 5-for-11, 2-for-2 treys. Barnes had 9 points, 9 rebounds.
Speights had 11 points, 12 rebounds, 2 blocks off the bench, although he shot just 4-for-14. Livingston had 12 points and 4 assists, and Barbosa added 8. Andre Iguodala only had 7 points but he made his final three-pointer.
Caldwell-Pope led Detroit with 23 points and Jennings added 22. Smith had a quiet 14 points, 9 rebounds, and 10 assists, although he airballed a three-pointer late, to the smirk of his coach Stan Van Gundy and the boos of The Palace of Auburn Hills, that would still have been too little too late.
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