The Golden State Warriors were back in Memphis for Game 4, a “moment of truth”, against the Memphis Grizzlies. Marreese Speights was out with a right calf strain.
1ST QUARTER: Black Falcon!
The Warriors got off to a strong start and head coach Steve Kerr had Harrison Barnes guarding Zach Randolph (aka “Z-Bo”) while Andrew Bogut started assigned onto Tony Allen. For the most part, the adjustment worked.
Aside from a pick-and-roll slip by Marc Gasol that resulted in a dunk, assisted by Mike Conley, the Grizzlies were relegated to open jump shots. Allen made one jumper, but also missed three wide-open treys. Conley did his part, however, canning two open treys off pick-and-rolls up top.
Meanwhile, the Warriors were aggressive on the offensive end, especially Draymond Green. Green started off early with a right-wing triple assisted by Bogut, then after Gasol missed a jumper from the left side, Draymond grabbed the rebound, warded off a retreating Randolph with Z-Bo trying to sell a charge — and the Grindhouse crowd booing at Green’s non-call — and went hard on the left side, drawing a foul from Gasol in transition.
Barnes was fantastic in the early going, delivering a pass to a cutting Klay Thompson after Allen overplayed the passing lane to Thompson, who stopped and swished a short jumper in the paint.
Later, Curry got some physicality on the dribble on the left wing, slipped a bit, but as Barnes’ man doubled, Harrison broke towards the hoop from the left corner, got the feed from Steph, and converted a pretty reverse layup.
Barnes would’ve had an even more incredible opening quarter if not for a missed dunk. Barnes had posted up Courtney Lee on the left block. Lee slipped as Harrison received the entry pass, and Barnes attacked the interior with Gasol in the way. Harrison did his best to avoid Gasol’s arm, but the lefty jam went in and out, unfortunately.
But after Conley made a bad cross-court pass that had the ball trickle to the back-court, Barnes was the only one to notice in time and chased it down with no Grizzly past halfcourt, tomahawking the dunk with two hands.
Grizzlies head coach Dave Joerger called timeout and Golden State drew first blood, up 14-9 with 5:27 remaining.
But the turnover bug reared its ugly head momentarily, as Curry sent a line drive into the paint behind the head of a cutting Bogut, then Green drove the left side only to bail with a cross-court pass to the right side perimeter that was easily intercepted by Conley.
Barnes got another dunk, making an up-fake from the deep right corner on a pass from Bogut, then attacking the baseline as Lee bit, but Conley answered back with a trey on passes around the horn even as the Warriors did well to rotate after Gasol got the initial entry in the right post.
After Curry fed a Draymond Kosta Koufos came off the Memphis bench and contributed quickly, once again, getting a tip-in off a missed Lee three-pointer to make it 21-20 with just 1:08 to go.
But Andre Iguodala stole a pass — the Grizzlies’ 6th of the quarter — from Beno Udrih and delivered the touchdown pass to Curry, who went up for the dunk and barely got the ball to clear the rim. This time, for the Warriors who already experienced a missed dunk in Game 3 from Thompson, the ball found its destiny inside the hoop, perhaps a sign of better karma.
Koufos tried to drive down the lane on the last possession, but Draymond poked the ball out and the Warriors were off to the races. There was a lot of contact but no foul calls as Curry managed the rock, and Green missed a three-pointer, but David Lee tapped the ball to Livingston and the Warriors had one more shot before the buzzer.
Steph then played pick-and-roll with Green from 27 feet out and pivoted over Randolph. The triple dropped and Golden State took a 28-20 lead into the second quarter. Draymond led all scorers with 11 points.
2ND QUARTER: Chef Curry Is Back
Unlike in Game 3, the bench unit held the margin steady. Iguodala swished his first trey as Livingston dribbled to the right corner and drew two Grizzlies, then swished another triple as Curry drove in and stopped with two feet in the lane to deliver the pass back out to Andre on the left side, giving the Warriors a 37-26 lead early on.
Unfortunately, Iguodala couldn’t make the third in a row, as he missed an open trey from the left corner as the Warriors passed the ball around the horn, because Jeff Green drove into the lane on the ensuing possession, Draymond stepped in to draw what appeared to be an obvious charge on the replay, but was instead whistled for the blocking foul.
Curry then made a play that MVPs have to make, up-faking a three-pointer, then going past two Memphis players and subduing the awaiting giant, Gasol, with a nice floater to make it 45-33.
Joerger called timeout and when play returned, Curry stole a short pass from Allen to Gasol on the top, and finished the run-out with a cleaner dunk.
Even with Draymond on the bench, the Warriors’ defense turned up a notch, even as Bogut and Gasol were called for a double foul as Gasol’s offensive forearm/elbow shenanigans were met with counters from Bogut.
David Lee was a revelation on both ends, tapping loose rebounds to teammates.
Memphis employed all sorts of veteran tactics, such as Conley grabbing Draymond’s arm as he tried to slip a pick-and-roll with Curry on the right elbow, but getting called for a bad screen, which was Green’s third personal. Warriors associate head coach Alvin Genry tried to calm Draymond down and Green managed to sit on the Golden State bench with no additional technical whistled.
But Conley took the next possession into the teeth of the Warriors’ defense and was met with a block by Bogut. Steph took the ball up the court, put on the brakes before hitting the right wing arc and swished the three. The Warriors were now up, 50-37, approaching 3 minutes before halftime.
Bogut made a mental errors as D.Lee continued his great play, blocking a Vince Carter drive, but Bogut sent the outlet into Conley’s hands and Randolph ended up with an and-one on a re-post against Lee.
The Dubs fought through another questionable play, a non-call, where Steph’s dribble went too far and too high for a turnover, with a lot of contact from Courtney Lee, and Z-Bo was the recipient of the run-out even as David Lee hustled back.
However, Curry’s wizardry bested the Grizzlies going into halftime. First, he got through the perimeter at the top and stopped and popped before Gasol could reach him, then Steph dribbled past Z-Bo as the Grizzlies scrambled to bother him on the deep right wing, then darted a pass to D.Lee underneath, who converted the reverse layup.
Then Curry was isolated on Jeff Green, made a move towards him, up-faked from the elbow about 17 feet away, drew contact, got the whistle — perhaps a makeup call from Z-Bo’s runout — and the ball went in the hoop for an and-one.
Conley tried to get a two-for-one, but airballed a three-pointer, and Curry had Memphis on its heels and eventually got the ball to a waiting Barnes on the right elbow, but after an upfake, the ref called a travel on him as he attacked the paint.
Jeff Green’s follow-up three-pointer went back rim and the Warriors sported a 61-44 lead heading into halftime.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @cemcalex)
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