The Golden State Warriors were at Talking Stick Resort Arena to face the potent young backcourt of the Phoenix Suns. James McAdoo was listed as inactive for the Warriors.
1st Quarter – Steph Curry Show
With both teams having high-octane backcourts, a high pace was expected and, sure enough, it happened right out of the gate.
Andrew Bogut got an early layup assisted by Stephen Curry.
Then, after Harrison Barnes stole a bad pass from Eric Bledsoe, Klay Thompson missed a trey in transition, but Draymond Green got the offensive board and dished to Curry on the left side for a triple.
P.J. Tucker seemed to have fouled Curry on the shot, but there was no call.
Brandon Knight tried to answer back unsuccessfully, Green rebounded his miss, and Thompson atoned for his earlier miss with a three-pointer fed by Curry.
The Warriors were up quickly, 8-0, but the Suns got back on track with threes from Bledsoe and Markieff Morris
Golden State countered with another trey from Thompson and a lefty drive by Curry, finding Bogut at the rim for a layup that trickled in, then Curry got a catch-and-shoot three plus a foul from Ronnie Price.
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The Warriors owned a 13-8 lead with 7:51 to go at the first timeout.
After the timeout, the Dubs went on a “splash party” as Bogut pinned Thompson’s man deep into a “horns” set, allowing Steph to find Klay in the right corner for a wide open triple:
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Alex Len then missed a left baseline jumper and Green took the rebound, ran the break, and found Bogut for a lob that Bogut laid in with a finger roll.
Then it was a Green three, another Curry three…
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…and a Steph two-hand three-quarters-court chest pass off a rebound from a miss by Morris that ended up a touchdown layup to Thompson.
Curry would crossover various Suns left and right, getting free throws on fouls, then going behind-the-back left-to-right as Price bit, stopping before the arc, letting Price fly by, and drilling another three:
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Green joined the party once more with a rare catch-and-shoot three-pointer from Andre Iguodala, Curry hit yet another triple off a missed Festus Ezeli free throw…
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…and Ezeli got an inside jump hook from Iguodala after Iguodala corralled a heat-check early three from Steph.
At the buzzer, Curry missed a nice reverse layup attempt and Ezeli missed a couple tip-in tries, but the Warriors were up big after one, 44-27.
Curry tallied 19 points on just 6 field goal attempts. The Warriors shot 7-for-10 from beyond the arc.
2nd Quarter – Dunks Galore
The Warriors kept the momentum up even as Curry sat as he usually does to start the second quarter.
Iguodala waltzed around the defense on the right baseline and got an uncontested two-handed tomahawk and a disgusted Jeff Hornacek, the Suns’ head coach, called timeout.
After Leandro Barbosa made a three, this Barnes dunk down the lane:
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…Curry came back in with 6:39 to go in the half with Golden State up, 55-43.
Right away, he got into the mix as, from a baseline inbound under his basket, he entered the ball to Green on the wing, who hit Thompson at the top, who missed the straightaway triple.
However, Barnes was there for the athletic two-handed putback jam:
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Hornacek had to call another timeout as Curry got the ball from Green at the top, did an upfake on the closing Bledsoe, side-stepped to the left with one dribble, and drilled another trey.
The Warriors were up 60-43 with 5:58 left.
Barnes lost the ball on a dribble drive that he tried to start with a double-between-the-legs move, but with no call on the contact, came back with two strong moves inside, one which drew a trip to the free throw line and another he converted at the rim.
Even Ian Clark joined the parade with a three from the deep left corner as Green found him for Draymond’s sixth assist.
Curry momentarily came back to earth and maybe even sunk a little with two bad turnovers, one on a pass and the other in between a dribble where he thought about passing then lost the ball as it hit the sideline, which led to buckets by T.J. Warren and Knight.
But Thompson turned the momentum back in the Warriors direction as he caught-and-shot from the top, with an off-ball screen from Green, and Curry’s eighth assist.
The Suns had their chances, but even after the Dubs’ tenth turnover on a poor decision of a lengthy pass from Iguodala trying to hit Curry in the corner, Bledsoe threw the ball away right back.
That allowed Curry to dissect the defense for a layup, then after Knight missed a three in the left corner late in the shotclock, Steph got the rebound, took the ball upcourt on the left side, went between-the-legs to freeze his defender in transition, and pulled up from there, about 26 feet from the left wing.
Swish.
Not fair pic.twitter.com/EZmVpGSB5y
— Dieter Kurtenbach (@dkurtenbach) November 28, 2015
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With that, Golden State took a 75-57 lead into halftime as the Warriors shot an unbelievable 15-for-20 from downtown. Yet they only converted 6-for-15 from the free throw line.
Steph tallied 27 points and 8 assists in two quarters of play.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @peteyaz)
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