ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Memphis Grizzlies at the Golden State Warriors, Game 2.
The Grizzlies took a 50-39 lead into the third quarter.
3RD QUARTER: Klay Turns It Over
Golden State took the first punches in the second half, but Memphis hit back. Andrew Bogut led the offensive, getting his own tip-in after a drive-and-feed from Klay Thompson, even with solid interior help converging from Zach Randolph.
Bogut then tipped in a miss by Harrison Barnes charging from left to right into the lane, and the Warriors had the lead down to 50-43 early.
But Mike Conley hit a huge three from the top as the shotclock wound down, passing it off to Marc Gasol at the high pinch. Stephen Curry made a calculated gamble to double Gasol, but Gasol threw back up top and Conley canned the clutch triple, swinging his fist in celebration.
Gasol added a jumper up top and, after Draymond missed a jumper, Randolph swished a left baseline jumper as the shotclock buzzer sounded, the result of a late attack by Tony Allen.
Thompson then suffered a rash of turnovers, dribbling and successfully up-faking Randolph, but terminating his dribble, then letting the ball go. It was a traveling call, and Gasol made the Warriors pay again with another jumper up top over Draymond.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr took a timeout for damage control, with the Grizzlies now back up, 59-45, with 8:03 to go.
Klay committed another turnover as the Dubs tried unsuccessfully to convert interior passes with the long limbs of Randolph and Gasol in the way, as Gasol knocked the ball away. The turnover bug seemed to pass over to Barnes, as he also tried an ill-fated interior feed that got knocked away by Randolph this time.
Still, Barnes got a post-up to drop over the smaller Courtney Lee, and Andre Iguodala, who had come in for Bogut with the “small ball” strategy, drained a triple from the top thanks to pick action by Curry and Bogut and an overhead flip from Steph.
That made it 61-50 with 5:55 to go, but with the margin now back to the halftime deficit, Golden State still had its work cut out for them.
The Grizzlies’ offense wasn’t pretty, but it was effective, predicated on post-ups and offensive boards. Lee got a corner trey to swish after he missed a drive and “Z-Bo” Randolph got the miss.
With 3:40 to go, Iguodala converged on Gasol, trying to post up the planted Draymond on the left block, but as Gasol’s fadeaway went awry with Iguodala getting a lot of ball, referee Jason Phillips whistled Iguodala for the harm. The free throws by Gasol put Memphis back up by 13, 67-54.
On the next play, Curry shoveled the ball to Leandro Barbosa, who gave it back, and Steph pivoted and drilled the triple.
The Warriors couldn’t draw any closer, even as Iguodala led a break and found Steph streaking down the left side and Draymond got a lefty layup on a fastbreak. Closing out the quarter, Green missed an open three created by Steph’s behind-the-back flip with 38.6 ticks left, then Vince Carter back-rimmed a trey from the top, but Lee got the offensive rebound, dribble away from the paint, and swished a jumper with 0.9 before the buzzer.
Memphis maintained a 73-63 lead heading into the final frame.
4TH QUARTER: Clutch Conley
The Warriors stayed small and couldn’t chip away much at the lead, as Randolph got another offensive rebound among three smaller Warriors, namely Barnes, Shaun Livingston, and Iguodala, then fed Allen, who drove into the lane and converted a reverse layup past Iguodala.
Kerr brought Curry back with 9:29 remaining and the Grizzlies still up, 68-77.
Randolph went to work, getting two buckets over Draymond, then threw up an airball after Kerr abandoned the small lineup and Bogut was finally re-inserted. However, referee Phillips blew the whistle and called a foul on Bogut, although it was only his 2nd personal.
The Warriors got as close as 83-76 with 6:06 left as Thompson went to the baseline with a dribble, stopped and popped, but Conley made another clutch bucket, playing pick-and-roll with Z-Bo and, caught in between a pass back to Randolph, tossed up a one-handed shot that banked in from about the free throw line.
Golden State had their chances, but threw them away, as both Curry and Draymond were guilty of poor choices on cross-court passes, although Memphis did well to disrupt their motion offense, staying home with the Warriors not shooting well on this night.
Yet the defense of the Warriors held firm, as Draymond tipped a right-handed hook by the taller Gasol, smothered Z-Bo on a fade-away on late shotclocks.
It finally took another broken play with a off-target pass from Green to Bogut, whose mishandle led to an emergency pass to Steph in the left corner, who slipped but regained balance for a scoop shot in traffic, to cut the Grizzlies’ lead to 87-80 with 3:15 to go. Joerger used a timeout.
But it was a Grizzly on this night with a clutch trey.
After Gasol’s jumper at the top rimmed out with Draymond closing well, on the next Warriors’ possession, the Grizzlies deflected the ball back to the backcourt. Draymond didn’t have much time to work with as he retrieved the ball with 11 seconds remaining, found Thompson, and Klay missed a fade-away. Green was open for the putback but blew the tip-in, and Conley used some clock before drilling a dagger trey from the right elbow over Thompson.
Kerr called timeout and Memphis had a 90-80 lead with 2:11 to go.
Golden State squandered another chance to close the gap. After Draymond made two free throws, Gasol missed a jumper, Iguodala got the rebound, and Curry probed the perimeter to finally find Barnes wide open on the right side for a triple. The open trey rimmed out and the Warriors were now 6-for-24 from downtown.
Z-Bo made an interior pass to Gasol and got fouled and, as Gasol sank both free throws, Oracle’s fans started to file out.
Out of a timeout, Thompson made a right side layup to trim the Memphis lead to 92-84 with 1:02 remaining, then Gasol took the inbound and tried to dribble past Barnes, who made things difficult. Gasol couldn’t cross halfcourt within 8 seconds and that gave the ball back to the Warriors, but Green missed a layup although he got fouled, then missed one of two free throws.
92-85 was as close as the Dubs could get, as Lee scored a bucket going backdoor against halfcourt pressure, assisted by Conley.
Curry followed that up with an airball with 34.5 seconds left over Gasol from the left arc, his 7th miss from beyond the arc against just 2 makes, deflating the entire building.
Golden State fouled in desperation after that, but Curry added another brick from the top, then Barnes scored a nice and-one banker over Gasol, but it was too little too late.
Barnes’ free throw got the Warriors back to 97-90, but there were only 15 seconds left. Conley got the ball, Iguodala let him go, and Conley dribbled the clock out, helping the Grizzlies even the series at 1-1.
Conley was the hero tonight, with 22 points, 8-for-12 field, 3-for-4 downtown, as Randolph added 20 points, Gasol 15, and Lee another 15.
The Dubs got just 19 points from Curry on 7-for-19, 2-for-11 beyond the arc, with 6 assists. Klay had just 13 points on 6-for-15 shooting, just 1-for-6 downtown, and those 5 turnovers. Green was just 3-for-10 field, but had 14 points and 11 rebounds. Barnes chipped in 11 points, Bogut 12 boards, in defeat.
The Warriors will now travel to Memphis for Game 3 on Saturday, three days of rest in between.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @brittanylinnblake)
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