This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Toronto Raptors.
The Warriors had a 59-49 lead heading into the third quarter.
3rd Quarter – Lowry Leads Comeback
Kyle Lowry scored 11 of the Raptors’ first 13 points as the Raptors chipped away at the Warriors’ lead, as Golden State’s only highlight early was a Brandon Rush triple…
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…as Stephen Curry missed a three and committed two turnovers while Draymond Green also lost a ball to Lowry.
Toronto got as close as 64-60, but Curry managed to get a finger roll in the lane after Festus Ezeli timed a missed Klay Thompson corner trey attempt and got another offensive rebound, flipping the ball to Steph as Curry cut back around him to help.
Later in a long sequence, Curry delivered a pretty lefty behind-the-back pass to Rush near the top. Rush up-faked, dribbled into the lane, but lost the ball off his leg. However, Ezeli was there to put away the garbage with a low-trajectory jump hook to keep the Raptors at bay, 69-62, with 6:39 to go.
Toronto backup center Lucas Nogueira got into the action, thanks to assists by DeMar DeRozan, and after a lob alley-oop and a nice dribble penetration feed, Nogueira had two dunks the Raptors were within 76-73 with 2:52 remaining as Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton called timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Warriors got a backscreen to free Green for a reverse layup, assisted by Marreese Speights, then Curry drained a three as Shaun Livingston went “tic-tac-toe” with Speights to find him, but Cory Joseph and DeRozan had strong takes to the hole.
Still, Curry came to the rescue for Golden State as he tapped out a Speights miss off a Raptor, then on the ensuing inbound, Livingston eventually got the ball to Curry down the right lane and Steph converted a tough, pretty banker while faking a pass with 2.1 seconds remaining, giving him 29 points on the night:
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That gave the Warriors an 83-79 lead heading into the final frame.
4th Quarter – Duel To The Finish
Lowry, the Raptors’ hero on the night, got another three, his 30th point on the night, to start the quarter for Toronto.
After Speights passed up an open jumper on a behind-the-back up-pass from Livingston and charged into the lane for a whistle and a turnover, the Warriors’ “Big Three” of Curry, Thompson, and Green returned with 8:41 to play.
Thompson made a triple…
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…but then got caught in the right corner off the dribble and Lowry stole his pass back up top to Green, finishing with a run-out lefty layup.
Curry answered back quickly with a hand-off three-pointer from Green that rattled in from deep:
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With 6:31 to go, Livingston wasn’t covered in transition, Steph lasered the ball to him on the left baseline, and Nogueira bit on his pass-fake, Shaun scoring an easy layup:
Stephen Curry does an impression of Bebe getting faked out by Shaun Livingston pic.twitter.com/FMSUqRRied
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) December 6, 2015
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Raptors head coach Dwane Casey called timeout and the Warriors had the lead back up to 92-87.
Out of the timeout, the Raptors clawed back as Ezeli picked up his fourth personal guarding Luis Scola and a Lowry three as Scola screened off Thompson on the pick-and-roll, with Green getting a runner to trickle in after a cross-over.
DeRozan got a layup after Ezeli split free throws getting fouled by Scola on a lob by Green, Curry missed a floater — a rare miss inside — and Lowry mishandled the ball against Thompson, but recovered and made a move that surprised Klay, a layup on the left baseline past him.
Scola added free throws to put the Raptors up, 98-95, but Curry came back with a dribble pull-up super-human three in transition with Lowry draped over his right shoulder and Scola in full pursuit:
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With Iguodala draped all over him, Lowry missed a jumper, Green got fouled on the ensuing drive the other way, but he missed one of the free throws, and DeRozan got an inside bucket over the smaller Curry to give the Raptors a 100-99 lead.
Curry went “Human Torch” mode again as he made another triple from the top with Joseph on his left shoulder, giving him 38 points on the night and the Warriors a 102-100 lead approaching two minutes remaining:
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But Lowry got a lob late in the shotclock on the next possession to Nogueira to tie the game.
Steph did a heat-check from the exact same spot, but the ball went high off back-rim into Nogueira’s hands, but DeRozan’s layup on the other end hung on the rim and the forces of nature pulled it out, with Thompson tapping the rebound to a teammate.
Green got fouled on a drive, Klay let out a sigh of relief pertaining to DeRozan’s miss, and Draymond canned both this time to go up 104-102 with 1:25 left.
It was a free-throw shooting contest for the most part from that point on, as Curry reached in on a DeRozan drive, but DeRozan missed the second. The Raptors got caught holding Curry on the next possession and, after two from the charity stripe, the Warriors held a 106-103 lead with 58.5 seconds to go.
But Lowry put on his cape once more, turned the corner on a double-team by Green on the left sideline, and ended the play with an “and-one” layup as Draymond tried to recover from his initial mistake.
However, Lowry missed his bonus free throw and Golden State had the ball with 44 seconds remaining, down 106-105.
Thompson missed a baseline jumper, but Green got his paw on the ball and Scola tapped the ball out. A replay review confirmed it and, by then, there were only 21.2 seconds left in the game, so the Raptors had to foul with Klay’s shot resetting the shotclock.
The inbound went from Iguodala on the baseline high near the halfcourt line to Thompson, Klay fed Steph, and Curry was fouled by DeRozan, then made both free throws with 18.2 ticks left to give the Warriors a 108-105 lead.
Lowry made another tough layup to give him 41 points on the night, but the Warriors’ inbound found Green with a touchdown pass. He passed up the layup, which would have been contested, burned more clock, and Thompson finally got fouled with 7.0 seconds remaining.
Up three, Walton opted to have Green foul Scola on the inbound, Scola made both, Walton called timeout, and Curry got fouled and hit both as well to maintain the three-point lead, 112-109, with 5.0 seconds remaining, but the Raptors had no timeouts to go.
Steph looped around on the deep inbound to Joseph and duped Cory into a turnover on the catch near the hashmark, with the ball going out on the right sideline off Joseph. Ironically, Toronto native and rap star Drake was sitting exactly where the ball landed:
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With 3.3 seconds left, Golden State had the ball back. Green was in charge of the inbound, couldn’t find anyone, and used the Warriors’ last timeout.
The next inbound try, Draymond found Steph going deep into the backcourt — purposely inside the Raptors’ three-point line — and the two most dexterous Warriors connected to end the game as Curry dribbled out the clock for Golden State’s 21st straight victory to start the season.
Curry ended with 44 points on 14-for-24 field and 9-for-15 downtown with 7 assists while Thompson added 26 on 6-for-9 beyond the arc, while his counterpart DeRozan shot just 5-for-19.
The Warriors head to Brooklyn to face the Nets in 24 hours.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @daveroo9)
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