This is a continuation of the first half recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Warriors held a dominant 72-50 lead heading into the third quarter.
3rd Quarter
Klay Thompson started where he left off, and his teammates followed suit, nailing two triples with this Stephen Curry scoop…
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[closer video from the baseline]…and a Festus Ezeli putback of a missed Curry three that displayed finesse once more, sandwiched in between Klay’s treys, which made it a 30-point lead at 82-52 early on.
Thompson’s second three-pointer was helped out with a nice decision on a pick-and-roll by Harrison Barnes.
The Julius Randle versus Draymond Green game-within-a-game went on, with Randle boxing out Green nicely, but Draymond tracking his full-court dribble from behind like a cheetah, tapping the ball out cleanly.
Curry got the loose ball and was off to the races and the Lakers smartly fouled him, for Klay was wide open on the wing and actually drilled a step-back three after the whistle, with no Laker in sight and giving up a clear path to the basket.
Still, Thompson made an alternate beautiful finish on the next possession as he drove in with the left hand, spun to the right, and scooped the ball in for a layup.
Harrison Barnes continued his torrid shooting as Ezeli got the ball inside met with multiple defenders, and dished out the Barnes up top, who didn’t hesitate as he fired confidently, giving him 18 points on the night, 4-for-5 from downtown.
That gave Golden State a varsity-versus-junior-varsity lead of 89-58. The Warriors were shooting 11-for-16 from beyond the arc.
Andre Iguodala and Marreese Speights soon checked in and with Curry, Thompson, and Green, the team forced a shotclock violation.
Curry took the next possession down the court for a lefty finger roll as Lakers’ rookie Brazilian point guard Marcelo Huertas couldn’t stay in front of him. That gave Steph 21 points on the night.
Thompson showed off his defensive prowess with a clean swat of a Lou Williams attack, then Curry went down the floor, drew two Lakers, and lasered a two-handed pass to Iguodala for the layup.
Golden State was now up, 98-71, with 3:53 to go in the third quarter.
The Warriors weren’t done exerting their defensive will, as Curry got a hand on a Huertas pass and fed Iguodala for an alley-oop with an under-handed pass from beyond the arc!
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Nick Young followed that with a missed triple and Curry’s rebound was quickly turned into a touchdown pass to Iguodala, but Andre missed the dunk as the ball got jammed into the rim.
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That was about the only lowlight of the Warriors’ quarter.
Another trey by Steph gave him 24 points and a 30-point Warrior lead at 103-73, then Barnes added another swish from downtown and Golden State would embark on yet another mini-adventure.
Curry got into the paint then flicked a behind-the-back lefty pass to a wide-open Iguodala from the right wing arc…
Ironically led to a #BlackFalcon putback dunk! RT @GSWdelivery: This #StephCurry pass was ridiculous!!! ?? pic.twitter.com/UdRaA5hP3M
— LetsGoWarriors (@LetsGoWarriors) October 23, 2015
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…Iguodala missed the three, but Curry eventually got the ball back up top.
Steph was in “fun” mode for sure and faked a swing pass, only to launch another three-ball from about 25 feet straightaway. The shot missed badly to the left, but Barnes was underneath with the much smaller Huertas on him and Harrison easily corralled the rebound for a two-handed dunk.
After Leandro Barbosa stole the ball from poor Huertas for a typical Barbosa breakaway layup with 5.7 seconds remaining, the Golden State lead swelled to 112-74 after three periods.
4th Quarter
Ian Clark, Chris Babb, Brandon Rush, Jason Thompson, and James McAdoo got the mop-up duties.
Rush tallied 9 points with 2 threes, although he had a silly cross court sling pass that had no way of reaching its destination.
Clark fed McAdoo with a nice alley-oop as well, and Babb had a nice hanging in-transition layup followed by a trey, as the game mercifully came to an end.
Marreese Speights subbed for McAdoo to close things out.
The Warriors won by the final score of 136-97 and head back to the Bay Area, to have their season opener at Oracle Arena in five days.
Here’s how Curry celebrated from the bench:
GAME RECAP ??
#LetsGoWarriorsLive pic.twitter.com/izk4T8F9LN
— GSWdelivery (@GSWdelivery) October 23, 2015
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Steph and Klay each tallied 24 points and Barnes added 23. Curry had 10 assists, Speights led the boards with 7 rebounds, and the Warriors shot a total of 16-for-31 from beyond the arc.
Williams led the Lakers with 19 points.
On the way back to the locker room, Curry gave his (as-yet-unreleased) shoes away to a kid:
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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @shelookslikethemoon)
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