ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Portland Trail Blazers at the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors took at 57-54 lead into the third quarter.
3RD QUARTER: One Costly Turnover Causes A Mini-Landslide
Golden State stretched their lead out to a 65-56 lead after Draymond Green opened the third frame with a three-pointer, followed by an alley-oop slam fed by Klay Thompson, followed by an easy layup by Stephen Curry as Harrison Barnes boarded a missed jumper by LaMarcus Aldridge and drove the length of the court.
Blazers head coach Terry Stotts called timeout with the 9-point deficit and 10:10 to play in the period.
After Andrew Bogut got a lefty hook to fall over Robin Lopez, countered by a Damian Lillard layup down the left side of the lane, countered by a Green layup off a pick-and-roll with Curry, Steph found himself crossing over CJ McCollum a couple times, but then fired a cross-court pass attempt to Barnes into the right sideline courtside seats.
That mistake would be costly, as the Warriors went downhill from there.
Aldridge warded off Green and made a layup off an entry pass in the post, to the angry yelling of Warriors head coach Steve Kerr to the referee, then Curry couldn’t nail a fly-by side-step three from the left side, and Aldridge made him pay with another trey for the big man from the left wing, cutting the Warriors’ lead to 69-63 with 7:18 to play.
Bogut missed a lefty hook try inside, then McCollum went down the left lane with an impressive inside-out dribble and scored a banker over Bogut, which was then followed up by a Lillard reverse layup against Green on a pick-and-roll. Curry answered with a nearly identical reverse against Aldridge on the other end, but Nicolas Batum rebounded his own missed trey from the top and stepped back from the left wing beyond the arc with no Warriors in sight, and buried the triple.
Kerr called timeout, seeing his lead dwindle to 71-70 with 5:50 to go.
It was officially a nail-biter, and after a Klay pull-up trey, Barnes got going with a Euro-step on Batum, plus a two-handed-upfake slam after getting an offensive rebound as Batum and McCollum couldn’t corral a missed trey by Green.
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But Steve Blake amazingly won a scrum at the top of the circle with the switched Draymond and drilled a three as Green was still on the ground from not picking up the loose ball, giving the Blazers an 84-82 lead with 28 seconds remaining in the quarter.
Green got revenge as he put back with 0.9 on the clock a Thompson fade-away, with the quarter buzzer about to sound, over Aldridge.
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That tied the game, 84-84, and the Warriors and Blazers headed into the fourth and final frame.
Q4
Kerr elected not to go with Marreese Speights and the bench unit led by Shaun Livingston, Justin Holiday, and Andre Iguodala, along with Bogut and, surprisingly, Brandon Rush, started the fourth.
Golden State’s second team’s offense was stuck in neutral again, but luckily for the Warriors, Portland’s second unit, led by Lillard, couldn’t capitalize, either.
Although Livingston got a nice two-handed slam created by Iguodala crossing over behind-the-back into the paint, Livingston went too hard off the bank, Holiday airballed on a shotclock-induced drive of the left baseline against the swarming McCollum, and Livingston airballed a fade-away.
The Blazers weren’t finding the bottom of the net, either, and Rush was the beneficiary with 4 quick defensive rebounds.
Curry checked back in with 8:03 remaining and the Warriors up, 88-86, and immediately got a no-look pass to Iguodala at the rim. However, Lopez got a slip dunk over a confused Golden State defense as they ran a weave at the top, giving the Warriors a taste of their own medicine.
Steph got a right side banker to drop as Batum shaded him too far in fear of the three-pointer, but Blazers backup shooter Allen Crabbe made a trey from the left elbow as Batum got the early transition going after Curry’s make, then got a tap-in of a missed trey by Lillard.
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But Steph found Klay open from the left wing while under duress after driving into a crowded lane, and after Aldridge missed a fade over Draymond, Steph brought the ball up to the right wing, got a pick from Green, and made another triple, prompting Stotts to call timeout with Golden State taking a 98-93 lead with 5:16 to play.
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Chef Curry then took over, answering a right-to-left layup by Crabbe with a long pull-up, then turning the corner on Batum and going reverse banker to avoid Aldridge after a nice McCollum floater over Bogut.
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The game still hung in the balance as Aldridge made a great step-and-spin-fade move on Bogut after Klay bricked a trey attempt from the left wing. That made it 102-99, Warriors, and Kerr took a timeout with 3:03 left.
Out of the timeout, Kerr’s play went from Bogut to Iguodala for a slam dunk, but after a double-clutch drive down the left side of the lane was converted by Aldridge, his 26th and 27th points of the night, Curry lost the ball, his 4th turnover of the game, and McCollum made a reverse layup in transition going right to left into the lane.
The Warriors lead was trimmed to 104-103 with 2:21 remaining, and Thompson got swatted on a layup by Batum. Luckily for the Dubs, Green got the rebound, Curry got the ball out beyond the arc, and Lillard reached in as Steph took the triple and was awarded three trips to the foul line.
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After canning all three free throws to make it 107-103 with 2:03 to play, Crabbe traveled like a deer in the headlights from the top of the circle, with Oracle chanting, “Let’s go Warriors!”, not taking the open trey, and Bogut made the Blazers pay with an overhead pass to a cutting Thompson for an easy bucket underneath.
After a Lillard missed three, Chef Curry sliced and diced Portland up, getting switched onto by Aldridge and going behind-the-back for a crossover, then stepping back for a long two as Curry decided against the nail-in-the-coffin trey.
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It was 111-103 with just 1:11 to go, but there was still more time for some Steph wizardry as he went left-handed past McCollum and made a show-ball fake to Aldridge, getting the layup as LaMarcus mistimed the swat.
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Curry wasn’t done even as Portland withered away as Lillard turned the ball over with a traveling call. Steph used yet another Draymond pick beyond the arc and swished it, putting the Blazers away, 116-105.
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Amid chants of “MVP,” Curry dribbled out the next possession, causing a shotclock violation (turnover charged to the “team”). The Blazers didn’t bother with the next possession and were defeated.
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Curry led all scorers with 45 points on 17-for-23 field, 8-for-13 downtown, including 10 assists, while Klay added 26 on 10-for-21 shooting, 3-for-5 from beyond the arc. Barnes added 12-and-7 and Green 11-and-14.
Aldridge led Portland with 27 points on 11-for-24 field, 2-for-3 downtown, while Lillard added 20 points on 9-for-22 shooting but just 1-for-9 beyond the arc. McCollum had 17 off the bench and Batum racked up 7 points, 10 rebounds, 8 assists.
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