This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Utah Jazz.
The Warriors took a 53-48 lead into the third frame.
3rd Quarter – Favors Hits Jumpers
The Warriors came out of the gate in the third quarter focused. Stephen Curry drew free throws on Raulzinho Neto, then got a reverse layup on a nice cut and feed by Andrew Bogut.
Draymond Green kept the momentum going. As the shotclock wound down, he couldn’t find anyone to pass to, and went strong down the right lane against Derrick Favors with a high-off-the-backboard finish as Rudy Gobert and his long arms tried unsuccessfully to help out.
After Neto and Favors missed shots, Klay Thompson received a precision Bogut pass from overhead, faked a shot as he caught it, then turned around and buried the short jumper anyway.
That gave the Warriors a little more separation and Jazz head coach Quin Snyder had to take a timeout to keep the game from getting out of reach, with Golden State up, 61-50, with 9:32 to go in the third.
But Favors kept the Jazz close with jumper after jumper, plus a nice Hayward stop-and-pop swish with Thompson pestering him with pretty decent man-on-man coverage.
that was Hayward’s answer to Klay’s catch-and-shoot triple from a curl with Hayward draped over him, but later Thompson found Festus Ezeli for a dunk on a lob as Klay dribbled past the pressure defense.
Curry made a couple of bad-looking turnovers. He was doubled by Gobert as he crossed halfcourt, but no one came close enough to receive a pass and Steph’s behind-the-back pass went into the backcourt.
Curry also picked Trey Burke cleanly, but missed the ensuing layup after trying to do a wrap-around, getting his own rebound but firing a pass into the sideline:
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With 3:08 to go, Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton called timeout with Golden State still up, 73-69.
Utah backup power forward Trevor Booker contributed with two buckets in the lane, countered by Curry’s fourth three in eleven tries out of the timeout, and Thompson got a triple and a turnaround jumper on the left block against the smaller Burke.
Green made a beautiful mid-dribble bounce pass to a backdoor cutting Curry for a lefty banker from the right glass…
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…and Favors finally missed from the top at the buzzer, and the Warriors took an 83-77 lead into the final frame.
4th Quarter – Curry And Green Make Superstar Plays
The fourth quarter got off to a rocky start for the Warriors as the bench unit, with Bogut — who had foul trouble earlier — back in, committed four straight turnovers.
The guilty parties were Leandro Barbosa, Bogut, and Marreese Speights, in that order, although Bogut had a nice swat of Favors:
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The Jazz took advantage with a 13-4 run, with a Rodney Hood three, a Booker dunk down the lane, and a Gobert alley-oop assisted by Hayward. Bogut also picked up his sixth foul and sat down. Speights also checked out.
Free throws by Favors on a putback of a missed jumper of his gave Utah their first lead, 88-87, with 7:39 to play in the game, as Curry checked back in.
Thompson and Green were way off on their ensuing shots, and Burks made a pull-up that brought the house down, but Curry came back in transition, gave an inside-out dribble approaching Burks on the deep right wing. Swish!
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On the next possession, Snyder called timeout with the game tied, 90-90, and 6:12 remaining.
Burks stepped up for Utah again, canning a floater in the lane and a jumper, but Green found Livingston in the left corner for his first three of the season to make it 95-92…
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…then Curry got Festus Ezeli an alley-oop dunk with a hook lob pass:
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Both teams took some blows of empty possessions with the Warriors playing nice defense late in the clock against Hayward, which resulted in a badly missed triple from Burke, but the Warriors couldn’t get a shot off til late either, and Green’s contested three from the deep right win went in-and-out.
Hayward finally broke the ice with a pretty right fadeaway swish to give him 24 points on the night and make it 97-96, Warriors, as Walton took a timeout with 2:33 left.
Out of the timeout, Favors got Ezeli to bite on a mini-pump fake and scored an “and-one” in the lane, but Curry came back against the switched Favors and got a step-back long two-pointer from the left wing:
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Curry got a hand on a Burks pass, Andre Iguodala corralled the loose ball, sent a two-hand chest pass up to the streaking Steph, who with Burks all over him double-clutched and missed the layup, but Green was there for the follow putback plus the harm!
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That put Golden State up, 101-99, but Draymond missed the “and-one” free throw.
Snyder took a timeout, then Favors and Green battled for a missed jumper by Hood and the ball went off Draymond, with no complaint from Green nor replay review.
Favors got fouled again, drawing contact, and made both free throws to tie the game 101-101 with 1:03 to go.
On the next possession, Thompson set a pick for Curry at the top, Steph curled to the left and stepped back on Hood for a clutch triple to go up, 104-101, with 51.9 ticks left:
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After another timeout, Hood took Iguodala on the left baseline and made a tough banker over Ezeli in traffic to pull the Jazz to within 104-103 with 37.7 seconds remaining.
Then Curry missed a three from the top, the ball bouncing off the left side of the rim and out of bounds, Snyder took yet another timeout, and Utah had a chance to win the game with 16.9 seconds to go.
But Hood missed a three-pointer from the right wing, the ball bounced towards Gobert, but Green got a hand on it and saved the ball to Curry from going out of bounds on the baseline:
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Burks had no choice but to foul Curry, who made both free throws to go up 106-103.
Without any timeouts, Hayward got the inbound, launched from three-quarters court with Curry in front of him and airballed the “Hail Mary” as the buzzer sounded.
The Warriors (19-0) survived for their 19th straight win to start the season, 106-103. Curry ended with a game-high 26 points on 9-for-20 shooting and 4-for-8 downtown, Thompson chipped in 20, and Green tallied 20 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists.
Hayward had 24 points to lead the Jazz, Favors added 23-and-10, and Gobert collected 13 points, 11 rebounds in defeat.
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