ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Memphis Grizzlies (54-26) paid a visit tonight to #Roaracle to face the Golden State Warriors (65-15), who with a win could knock the Grizzlies down to the 6th seed in the playoffs, while solidifying the San Antonio Spurs‘ hold of the No. 2 seed, thus avoiding a meeting against the Spurs until the Western Conference Finals, if both teams get that far.
Mike Conley and Tony Allen were out for Memphis. Ognjen Kuzmic was on assignment for Golden State in Santa Cruz and Leandro Barbosa was cleared to play after sitting out two games with a sore right Achilles.
1ST QUARTER: Curry Sets The Table For Splash Brothers
The Warriors started off the game with Draymond Green guarding Marc Gasol and Andrew Bogut on Zach Randolph, with Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry showing help whenever possible.
Golden State’s was clicking out of the gate. Thompson swished the game’s first bucket on a curl to the free throw line off of Bogut, with the pass delivered by Green, then Klay got two backdoor cuts on Courtney Lee rewarded, assisted by Green again as well as Curry. Green also got an early trey to drop from the top of the circle.
But Memphis was hitting their shots as well, as Jeff Green drilled a long two on a catch-and-shoot, Lee went down the lane for a finger roll as Thompson showed a double and couldn’t recover on the shift, and Zach Randolph drained a flat-footed jumper from the right elbow, assisted by Beno Udrih.
However, the Warriors answered back as Chef Curry got cooking again, displaying a couple of dribble crossovers before fading away towards the right side over Udrih for a jumper good, then giving Udrih a rocker move from up top down the right side of the lane, keeping the ball extended out of Udrih’s reach and converting a nice banker.
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Harrison Barnes then picked Jeff Green’s high post isolation and took the ball the length of the floor, streaking in for a double-clutch two-handed jam. Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger called timeout and Golden State had the early separation, 17-10, with 6:42 remaining.
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The Splash Brothers then got to work as Draymond stole a pass from Jeff Green, led the break, found Barnes on the left side, who jumped and shifted his body to avoid the charge, and dished it to a wide-open Curry on the right wing for a triple.
With the score 22-12 and 5:45 left, Udrih missed a jumper from the right elbow, Draymond got the rebound, outlet it to Steph on the left side, who then faked a trey and spun around on his pivot as Udrih closed out, and fed Klay in the left corner for another three-point splash.
Barbosa added to the trey-fest as Curry probed the Grizzlies on the left baseline and threw a lefty sling pass Andre Iguodala open on the right wing. Iguodala gave a touch pass over to Barbosa in the corner and “The Blur” swished the corner triple and gave the Warriors a 30-16 lead with 3:11 to go.
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About the only thing that went wrong for Golden State was Draymond picking up two straight fouls while guarding Randolph in the post. The two fouls occurred within just 11 seconds of each other, and David Lee came in to replace Green at the 1:55 mark with Randolph trimming the Warriors lead to 30-21.
As the quarter came to a close, Vince Carter went with a right-to-left behind-the-back dribble up top, pulled up for a trey, but bricked it off the board, not drawing iron, and Curry led the break and found Lee trailing on the left side for an easy layup.
After that, Festus Ezeli deflected a shot by Randolph and Curry played “tic-tac-toe” with Iguodala, who found Barbosa on the break for another easy Warriors layup.
That gave the Dubs a 36-21 lead heading into the second quarter. Thompson led all scorers with 11 points on 4-for-4 field, while Steph added 9 points on 4-for-6 shooting, to go along with 4 assists. Bogut tallied 4 rebounds and Barbosa chipped in 5 points off the bench.
Randolph led the Grizzlies with 10 points and Gasol only had 2 points on 1-for-1 field.
2ND QUARTER: Klay With Another Type Of 37
Ezeli continued his solid play, blocking Gasol in the paint and getting fouled, converting two free throws, as he drove the lane on a feed by Thompson. Festus then swatted a left side running layup by Nick Calathes.
But Klay would steal the show, getting a catch-and-shoot trey to fall from the right wing, assisted by Iguodala. That made it 41-27, Warriors, with 9:33 to play in the half.
After Shaun Livingston made a mid-post turnaround from the right side, Jeff Green short-rimmed a trey, and once again Thompson went backdoor on his man, this time victimizing Jordan Adams as Barnes set a back pick on the up cut from the block to free up Klay’s cut. Bogut got the assist.
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Later, Gasol missed a jumper from the top of the key and, in transition, Thompson swished a triple from the left wing to make it 48-31, Golden State, with 7:15 to go.
Klay followed that up with two reverse layups down the lane, the second one absorbing a slight bump at the end and going with a high backboard lefty banker over Randolph. Joerger called timeout and the Warriors took a 52-34 lead with 5:28 to play.
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The layups seemed to ignite a spark from downtown for Thompson, as he made a quick-release trey from the right corner after Draymond grabbed a defensive rebound and led the break. Adams was all over Klay on the close-out, to no avail.
Even as JaMychal Green put #Roaracle back in their seats with a two-handed putback slam of a missed Adams layup, Thompson followed up with another three, this time on a catch-and-shoot from the left wing, assisted by Draymond, and of the quick-release variety.
Klay swung his fist in celebration, Oracle was cheering at a fever pitch, and Joerger called timeout. Curry joined the celebration, pushing Thompson away, and the bench met Klay with side five bumps.
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Golden State took a 61-36 lead with 3:51 to go in the half.
Things got a little silly after that, with the Warriors, of course, recalling Thompson’s 37-points-in-a-quarter outburst back on January 23rd against the Sacramento Kings and the team tried its best to just feed Klay on every offensive possession.
Thompson drilled another one from the right elbow, assisted by Draymond, but the next sequence, Green tried a little too hard to feed Klay and threw the ball out of bounds, as Oracle drew a collective, “Awww!”
Then Curry went out of his way to isolate Klay on the mid-right post against Udrih. Thompson spun and faded, and the ball hit front iron, plus the board, before dropping in! That gave Klay that magical number of 37 points for the game, on an incredible 14-for-17 shooting, 7-for-8 from beyond the arc.
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The Dubs tried once more to feed Thompson and Curry did, but Klay’s dribble into the paint went awry with 45.9 seconds remaining and went out of bounds.
On the last play of the half, Steph got the ball to Thompson on the left elbow and he fed Ezeli on the slip of a pick-and-roll. Festus cocked for a two-handed slam, drawing oohs from the crowd, but JaMychal Green fouled him. Still, the ball trickled in for the and-one, but Ezeli missed the free throw.
That gave the Warriors a 68-46 lead heading into halftime. Along with Klay’s 37, Curry still had 9 points and Festus was 3rd on the team in scoring with 6 points, plus 5 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
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