This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Oklahoma City Thunder, in which OKC took a 69-60 lead into halftime.
The Thunder made that 70-60 to start the third by converting the technical foul issued to Warriors head coach Steve Kerr at the end of the half.
3RD QUARTER: Your Turn, My Turn
Golden State chipped away at the Thunder lead as Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry hit a three-pointer each, and Marreese Speights got a driving layup, a jumper, and a dunk — facilitated by early-offense penetration by Thompson, who passed it to Harrison Barnes, who made the extra interior dish to Speights — cutting the OKC lead to 79-74 with 7:35 remaining.
Curry added another three in the comeback, as the Oklahoma City crowd clamored for a traveling call on Thompson before he dished it to Speights, who found Curry open:
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After that, Speights kept his foot on the accelerator with another layup and another jumper, and Barnes nailed his fourth triple of the night, again from the right corner, to cut the Thunder lead to just 86-84 with 5:15 remaining in the quarter.
But after Dion Waiters answered that with his own three, Curry committed his fifth turnover on a strip by Waiters, who converted the run-out dunk. Kerr called timeout and the Warriors were down, 91-84, with 4:11 to play in the third.
David Lee drew a foul on Anthony Morrow, but missed both free throws, then Russell Westbrook split the Warriors perimeter, rose, and landed with a tomahawk dunk.
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Still, Thompson answered that dunk with his own, going lefty dribble down the lane:
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Curry stole a bad pass back up to the top by Durant and finished the fastbreak layup, throwing his body into Waiters, but not getting the call as the ball went through the hoop. That made it 93-88, Thunder with 2:36 to go in the third.
Lee blocked a Waiters bankshot attempt and Shaun Livingston capitalized with a floater, but with the clock winding down, Morrow got a pass from halfcourt from Durant and drilled a thirty-footer from the right side at the buzzer, with only Leandro Barbosa and Livingston back for the Warriors on defense.
The breakdown left the Dubs down, 98-91, as Durant led all scorers with 32 points and Westbrook added 16 points, 9 rebounds. Thompson led the Warriors with 25 points, Speights added 20, and both Barnes and Curry had 14 points, although Curry also had 5 turnovers to go along with 5 assists.
4TH QUARTER: Pogo Stick Russ
A triple by Morrow helped the Thunder cross the one-hundred mark, but Lee led a mini-push after hitting a jumper over Adams and getting two free throws on Adams with a drive. That cut the OKC lead to 101-95 early in the fourth quarter. Livingston dwindled the lead to just four points with a baseline jumper assisted by Speights, and Brooks called timeout with 9:12 remaining and the Thunder up, 101-97.
Thompson continued his offensive show, getting a fadeaway to fall with Waiters draped all over him, driving left-handed on the taller Durant, up-faking him, making him fall, missing short, but tossing in the offensive rebound.
But another Curry turnover killed the momentum as he went left-handed over the shoulder to Speights way too hard. It was an incomplete pass into the stands by Curry, his sixth “gimme” of the night, and a TV timeout left the Warriors deflated, 111-103, with 5:43 to play.
Serge Ibaka then delivered some crucial blows to the Warriors, splashing a three-pointer out of the timeout, getting a layup in early offense from the left side, and converting an and-one as the pick-and-roll forced Barnes to switch away from Ibaka, leaving Thompson caught in the middle and fouling Ibaka from behind as the layup went in.
That put the Thunder up, 118-106, and they wouldn’t look back from there.
Credit Thompson with one last gasp as, before the Ibaka and-one, after showing his fatigue with his hands on his knees as Curry dribbled the ball to the frontcourt, Klay got the ball, drove left-handed again on Durant, made two up-fakes in a row to shake the Thunder interior defense to put the ball in.
That gave Thompson an impressive 32 points on 12-for-22 shooting.
Ibaka’s and-one made it 119-106 with 3:15 to play and Kerr called timeout. Curry managed to draw a foul on a three-point try, converted all three free throws, but Westbrook’s athleticism getting the rebound off a miss against good defense led to two free throws on the other end, with the foul on Speights, who did his best to stop the pogo-sticking Westbrook, who recorded an eye-popping 17 points, 15 rebounds, and 17 assists.
Curry still kept hope alive with a layup in traffic, drawing the contact and shielding the ball, giving Curry 19 points, but on the other end, Durant was fouled inside by Green.
Durant scored 36 points on the night on 14-for-18 from the field and 5-for-5 from the charity stripe to go along with 9 rebounds.
Inevitably, Speights missed a jump-stop that left the Warriors behind, 122-111, with 2:06 left, and the writing was on the wall.
Waiters put the nail in the coffin as he went right-to-left crossover with a fading bankshot. Kerr called timeout and emptied the bench with Barnes — who tallied 18 points on 6-for-13 field and 4-for-7 downtown — at center to finish out the game, along with Livingston, Barbosa, Justin Holiday, who had played a solid first half off the bench, and the season-struggling Brandon Rush, with Festus Ezeli staying home with the injured ankle and Ognjen Kuzmic on assignment at the D-League Showcase with the Santa Cruz Warriors.
The Warriors got outrebounded, 54-43. The Thunder shot 52.6% in Iguodala and Bogut’s absence, and got 17 second-chance points. Waiters had 21 points off the bench, Ibaka tallied 27 points and 8 rebounds, and Morrow added 12 points.
The Warriors (31-6) fly to Texas to face the Houston Rockets (28-12) tomorrow.
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