SAP CENTER, SAN JOSE, CA — The Golden State Warriors returned to San Jose for a preseason game for the first time in fifteen years, also where the Warriors spent the 1996-97 season while the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena was being renovated to become The Arena in Oakland (which later was renamed to Oracle Arena).
When the Warriors’ starters were in, for the most part they did not skip a beat, playing like a team humming with chemistry, as Golden State went on an 11-2 run to close out the first half, thanks to two jumpers by Brandon Rush, a layup by a cutting Klay Thompson fed by Andrew Bogut, and threes by Draymod Green and Stephen Curry.
The Raptors, behind 15 points from DeMarre Carroll and 12 from DeMar DeRozan, kept things within striking distance, but Leandro Barbosa, who had a team-high 15 points, closed out the third period with a mini-run to stretch the Warriors lead to 9.
Toronto’s erstwhile nine-year veteran point guard Kyle Lowry sat out with a groin injury.
In the final frame with each team’s bench players playing against each other, James McAdoo sparked the Warriors to a commanding 13-point lead with not one, not two, but three “and-one” field goals (on the third, he missed the free throw), but Toronto came back to close the gap to two possession, 89-83, with just 1:29 to play.
But Marreese Speights put back a missed Ben Gordon three-pointer with 52.7 seconds remaining, and the Raptors ran out of time.
On a night when a bobblehead of Curry in a San Jose Sharks jersey was given out to the first 10,000 fans to arrive at the arena, the referees called things tight and fouled out the MVP of honor with as much as 6:25 to go in the third quarter.
However, interim head coach Luke Walton had said before the game that the starters were only going to play 20 to 25 minutes each.
After the game, Walton said that all of the starters were going to come out in the third frame anyways, so Curry probably would have only played two more minutes, which is why Walton kept him in there even with five personal fouls accrued.
Interestingly, Curry fouled out in the first preseason game of last year as well, nearly exactly one year to the date! It was against the Los Angeles Clippers and Chris Paul, not surprisingly, baited Curry into his sixth personal. Tonight, Curry was simply over-aggressive on defense and the referees were more than likely going to call the game “by-the-book” as part of their warm-up for the regular season, too.
Despite the limited action, Curry still had the play of the night. With under five minutes to go in the opening period, Curry hit his first three-pointer after missing the previous two, plus the front-end of a pair of free throws as the San Jose crowd chanted, “MVP!”
DeRozan then missed a three-pointer, Curry snagged the rebound, and was off to the races with Thompson filling the left lane.
Curry then made a #StephGonnaSteph move, wrapping the ball around his waist for a right-handed behind-the-back dish to Thompson, who was setting up for a three-pointer from the deep left wing. However, Green was open down in the block, so Thompson fed him, meanwhile Curry snuck his way back to the right wing.
Green found Curry with the defense off-balance and, as Curry launched the triple in front of the Warriors bench, reached over to high-five a teammate while the ball was in mid-air. It splashed through and the crowd went nuts:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_b5D8h5rWo&w=560&h=315](Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @jeremiahdillon)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
