ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Indiana Pacers (14-22) were in town tonight to face the Golden State Warriors (27-5) at #Roaracle. Previously injured center Andrew Bogut was announced as active prior to tipoff, although Festus Ezeli still remained out. Paul George, George Hill, and Ian Mahinmi were out for the injury-ravaged Pacers. Rodney Stuckey was also a late scratch.
1ST QUARTER: Standing O’s At Roaracle Early
For two teams known for their defense, the first quarter got off to a relatively torrid start, especially for the Pacers, who shot 50% for the quarter, going 11-for-22.
The teams traded baskets for the most part, with Doug West‘s jumper answered by Draymond Green‘s three, answered by Solomon Hill‘s three, followed by a Klay Thompson run-out dunk after a steal by Stephen Curry, another Hill trey, a Curry pull-up jumper, and then a Hill turnaround.
Curry got off to a bad start in the turnover department, committing three of them within the first six minutes, but quickly got his record-setting 1,000th three-pointer made, the youngest NBA player ever to do so, at the 6:21 mark, giving the Warriors an early 16-12 lead after Pacers head coach Frank Vogel called timeout.
That gave #Roaracle the opportunity for a standing ovation and chants of “MVP!” for Curry, who acknowledged the crowd, as he sat down for the timeout.
Green continued his brilliance on defense, drawing a charge and getting a nice block after it appeared that CJ Miles had gotten past him on a right-handed layup attack.
Meanwhile, Roy Hibbert landed awkwardly in the paint and couldn’t put any weight on his ankle, which was later diagnosed as a sprain. Hibbert was listed as “questionable” for returning.
Shortly after that, with the Warriors up, 17-14, and 5:19 left in the period, another standing ovation occurred as Andrew Bogut checked in for Marreese Speights.
Bogut quickly got a defensive rebound, but also committed a rebounding foul and got scored on at the rim by a driving Hill.
The Warriors offense wasn’t clicking, perhaps still getting used to Bogut’s return, as CJ Watson got the rebound of a missed trey by Green and delivered a touchdown pass to West for a layup on the other end. Then, Andre Iguodala found himself at the left elbow beyond the arc, with no Warrior inside the paint. With the shotclock running down, Iguodala finally launched a missed three and Hill came back with the attack, missed, but Lavoy Allen got the putback.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout as that gave the Pacers a 24-19 lead with 2:52 remaining.
Bogut would miss a short jumper on the “ATO” (after-timeout play), but later got an alley-oop on a play out of a side out, after Thompson had drawn a foul down low on a post-up of the smaller Watson. Bogut’s dunk trimmed the Pacer lead to 26-23 with 1:09 left.
On the other end, Shaun Livingston committed a foul on Donald Sloan, but the Warriors were in the penalty so Sloan gave Indiana a 28-23 lead heading into the second quarter. Hill led all scorers with 10 points. Thompson led the Dubs with 8 points, while Curry contributed 5 points, 3 assists, but also 3 turnovers.
Q2
Pacers forward Luis Scola became a thorn in the Warriors’ side to start the second frame, as he made two straight jumpers, then a layup on a cut to the hole, assisted by Sloan, to give the Pacers a 40-31 lead with 7:00 to go in the half. Kerr called timeout.
After a driving layup by Sloan, Justin Holiday, who started the quarter, made a left-corner three after Green got his own miss, passed back out to Harrison Barnes, who gave it up to Curry, who found Holiday open.
But the Warriors couldn’t build momentum as a nice Iguodala steal of Sloan’s pass went wasted on the other end as Holiday missed a banker and Green missed a three, and a long rebound by Curry of Miles’ missed trey led to Curry committing his fourth turnover on a lead pass to Holiday that strayed away out of bounds.
Green got a nice block, his second of the game, on Scola, leading to a Curry splash from downtown, then Thompson made another triple after a sequence where he drew two free throws on Scola with an effective jump stop attacking the rim.
Curry trimmed the Pacers margin by getting another steal as West lost his dribble and getting just enough over the rim on the run-out for a dunk. Pacers head coach Frank Vogel called a timeout, seeing his lead vanish to just two points, 46-44, with 2:17 to play in the half. Curry and Thompson combined to score ten straight Warrior points in the mini-comeback.
Green then played tremendous long-armed defense on a West turnaround baseline shot and Curry capitalized, using Green as the drag-screener and pulling up from beyond the arc, straightaway, to even the score at 50-50 with 46.7 ticks remaining.
Oracle got up on its feet as Hill threw up an airball with 22.6 to go, giving the Warriors one last possession, but Curry front-rimmed his three as the crowd chanted, “Let’s go Warriors!”
Curry and Thompson led the scoring with 13 points apiece while Scola led the Pacers with 12. The Warriors shot just 19-for-48 (39.6%) and were out-rebounded 26-19.
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