ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors were back home at #Roaracle for Game 5 of the 2015 Western Conference Semifinals against the Memphis Grizzlies, knotted up at two games apiece.
Marreese Speights did not play for the Warriors, out with a calf strain. Tony Allen also did not play for the Grizzlies, out with a hamstring injury. Jeff Green started in Allen’s place.
1ST QUARTER: Last Two > First Ten
Zach Randolph (aka “Z-Bo”) was strong off the opening tip, getting the first possession on the left side and swishing a jumper over Andrew Bogut. Then Klay Thompson missed two early jumpers, and Z-Bo grabbed an offensive rebound against Bogut after Marc Gasol‘s shot went too hard over Draymond Green, and Randolph powered the bucket in.
The Warriors were not sharp on offense, although their defense held up early. Draymond got a steal of a Jeff Green slip pass to Randolph, but Harrison Barnes turned it right back to Mike Conley on the ensuing break.
Then after Z-Bo made a bad pass while being hounded by Draymond, stolen by Curry, Steph went down the court, went through the lane for a layup, but passed back out to the left side well out of reach for Barnes, and the ball sailed out of bounds.
Randolph capitalized with another putback, but Draymond fed Bogut for an alley-oop in response…
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…then Jeff Green then got a runner from a pick-and-roll with Gasol and, after Draymond missed a three-pointer with no one underneath, Randolph drained a trey from the top via Gasol.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr took a timeout with the Grizzlies up, 11-4, and 8:22 to go.
Out of the timeout, the Warriors continued to struggle.
Klay’s runner back-rimmed and, although Bogut got the offensive board, Draymond followed that up with a three-pointer that went awry. After Gasol got an inside bucket upon receiving the ball right back from feeding Z-Bo in the post, Curry lost his dribble while crossing the lane from the right side, but managed to pickup the ball beyond the arc on the right wing and splashed a triple.
That instantly turned an ominous 13-4 deficit to two possessions at 13-7, but Golden State would slip down the hill once more.
Randolph made a fade-away from the right side as Thompson showed help, but Draymond tried to dribble up the ball past Gasol and mishandled it, guilty of exactly the type of turnover he vowed needed to be fixed, and Gasol made a jumper on the other end, assisted by Conley.
Klay then missed another jumper on the right elbow, but Barnes managed to get a dunk at the shotclock buzzer as the ball finally got moved around from Curry to Draymond to Barnes on Green’s attack of the paint.
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That made it 17-9 with 5:30 to play.
Courtney Lee buried a jumper over Steph, Conley drew a foul on a reverse layup, Thompson threw a bounce lead pass to Bogut into the baseline for a turnover, and Andre Iguodala‘s double-clutch jumper as the Grizzlies allowed him to shoot, sagging towards his passing targets, barely drew iron.
If not for a Barnes corner three from a “tic-tac-toe” by Curry to Draymond, then a stop-and-pop by Harrison, attacking Z-Bo, followed by a three-pointer by Curry on a fastbreak led by Shaun Livingston, whose flip pass to Steph actually got deflected because Curry was flaring out to position behind the arc on the left side for the splash.
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If not for that broken play, the Warriors would have had a worse deficit than 23-17 with 2:42 left. Memphis head coach called a timeout after Steph’s triple splashed through.
During the timeout, the referees reviewed Barnes’ slam at the shotclock buzzer and ruled that it did not occur prior to the shotclock expiring, so the score was reset to 23-15, Grizzlies.
Things looked grim as Z-Bo hit another jumper to go up, 25-15, and Curry got called for a carrying violation, but somehow, the Warriors turned the tide.
Down by 10 with less than two minutes left, Iguodala found the Grizzlies defense sagging on him after receiving the rock at the top, so he dribbled in a popped a jumper.
After Beno Udrih‘s jumper went off rim, Steph came back, played pick-and-roll with Draymond at the top, pivoted, and drilled the three.
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Curry then picked Lee’s pocket from behind as Courtney was trying to dribble down the right side, launched a three from the left elbow, which went off, but Iguodala managed to get a tap on the rebound, which missed, but Draymond grabbed the board, gathered himself, and drew an and-one foul on Vince Carter.
Oracle was on its feet to close out the quarter and after Z-Bo missed an offensive putback at the rim over Draymond, following a missed three by Carter, Steph held the ball up top with the clock winding down and the Grizzlies without a foul to give.
Curry went to the left elbow, froze Udrih with short and quick dribbles, crossing him over, and calmly buried the triple with two seconds remaining.
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Just like that, the Dubs had gone on an 11-0 run in less than two minutes, erasing a horrid ten-minute start that was mired by 6 turnovers and, at the time, 5-for-15 shooting. Curry led all scorers with 12 points on 4 treys, and Randolph led the Grizzlies with 11 on 5-for-7 field.
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2ND QUARTER: Splash Hits
The #SplashBrothers took turns widening the Warriors lead. First, Klay sent Udrih to the bench after giving him a left-handed “hesi” at the top, then a dribble-and-pop.
Then Iguodala and Livingston took advantage of mismatches against Grizzlies backup point guard Nick Calathes — Iguodala drawing a foul and Livingston easily going by Calathes for a dunk, then a bucket on the left baseline.
Iguodala also picked up a technical after a questionable foul call.
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David Lee got a left side layup on a roll, then Bogut fell down trying to guard Gasol’s inside move. Livingston did well to help, causing Gasol to miss the layup, and Barnes also collapsed, bothering Carter’s offensive putback try. Bogut got the rebound and Curry found Barnes in the right corner for three points.
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Joerger called timeout as the Warriors built their first margin at 41-35 with 5:42 to go in the half.
Conley made a layup out of the timeout, then both teams struggled to score for over a minute, before the Warriors finally ran a weave up top and Thompson found Draymond on the roll, then Green lobbed an alley-oop to Bogut.
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Bogut then blocked Jeff Green and Curry went early-offense down the left side to zip a pass to Klay waiting in the deep right corner. He splashed it, the Dubs went up 46-37 with 3:32 to go, and Joerger burned another timeout to stop the bleeding for the Grizzlies.
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Both teams went cold for a bit again and had several misses, but Bogut corralled a missed trey by Curry from the left corner and, with the shotclock winding down, Bogut found Klay wheeling by him. The shotclock was at 5 and Thompson took a couple dribbles before finding Steph in the deep left corner with under one second on the clock.
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Curry drained the catch-and-shoot as the buzzer sounded and Oracle went crazy as Golden State took a 49-35 lead with under two minutes to go.
The half ended on a whimper as Barnes lost the ball from the top, upfaking then driving in — he had had a successful upfake and strong take on the left baseline earlier, but missed a would-be-spectacular double-clutch dunk attempt, then Barnes missed a trey from the top that went in and out.
Barnes also slipped as Courtney Lee drained a short jumper on the left side, possibly injuring himself doing the splits.
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The half ended with Steph dribbling into Z-Bo and Conley and getting the ball tapped out by Randolph. Luckily for the Warriors, the Grizzlies could not capitalize.
Golden State took a 49-41 lead into halftime.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @camila_bee)
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