The Golden State Warriors were at Bankers Life Fieldhouse to face the Indiana Pacers. The Warriors were without Harrison Barnes due to a sprained ankle. Earlier that morning, the team also reported that Leandro Barbosa was out with an illness.
1st Quarter – Splash Brothers Rain On Indianapolis
The first quarter featured a bevy of scoring, although the Warriors started off with three straight misses from downtown from Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson.
But C.J. Miles was focused at the outset, drawing three fouls as Thompson bit on an upfake and making a jumper after that.
The Pacers were ready for the challenge, as George Hill buried a jumper, Ian Mahinmi hit two layups on passes from Hill and Paul George, and George drilled a three from the top in transition.
However, the Warriors counter-punched with Andrew Bogut and Curry trading off on passes and cuts to the hole ending with buckets at the rim, Thompson also drawing three fouls from downtown, and two more Klay threes, one on a catch-and-shoot in transition and the other with a pull-up again in transition.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
The momentum seemed to sway toward Indiana as Green left a lead bounce pass for Brandon Rush, but Rush didn’t cut far enough and Monta Ellis led a break that finished with another Mahinmi layup to put the Pacers up, 21-15, but Green scored a touchdown dunk on the ensuing inbound.
Pacers head coach Frank Vogel called a timeout with 8:27 to go, up only 21-17. Little did he know, Draymond’s finish was the beginning of a 22-0 (ironically!) run.
Curry then made two consecutive stealthy defensive plays, tapping the ball out of Ellis’ hands, although Steph lost the ball out of bounds in transition, then tapping the ball out during Rodney Stuckey’s dribble.
The sequence finally ended with Thompson giving an upfake from beyond the arc in transition and, after the defender bit, taking a couple dribbles in and stopping and popping for a good jumper.
Miles missed an early ill-advised triple from the left wing, and Curry made the Pacers pay as he delivered a lob that Bogut slammed home off a Klay back-pick.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
All of a sudden, Golden State had taken the game by the throat and was up 29-21 with 3:34 to go as Vogel took another timeout.
After another Pacers miss out of the timeout, Curry found Andre Iguodala open under the hoop, but Iguodala pulled the ball back out, found Steph wide open from the right wing, flailing his arms indicating how open he was.
Curry caught the ball and drained the triple.
The Warriors weren’t done, as the Pacers had another empty possession with Bogut rebounding. With the remaining nine players retreating to the other end of the court, Bogut simply brought the ball up himself, Curry came off a screen to the right wing, drove down the right side and went with an up-and-under that left two Pacers bedazzled as Steph scooped the ball in for a right banker.
Jordan Hill then got disrupted by Bogut at the rim and Curry finished the transition with yet another three from the left wing via Iguodala assist.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
The Golden State lead had swelled to 37-21 with 1:52 to go in the first quarter.
George finally got Indiana back up on its feet with a late three from the top that trickled in, but Thompson came right back with a triple from the right wing, just a few seconds after that, which also happened to be Curry’s fourth assist and Klay’s 15th, 16th, and 17th points.
Andre Iguodala got into the lane and threw down a big dunk to make it 42-26
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Festus Ezeli had checked in for Bogut to end the first frame and Vogel rolled the dice and went with “Hack-Ezeli”, needing to foul Ezeli twice in succession, but it didn’t work as Festus made both.
Ellis missed a three at the buzzer and the Warriors capped off a dominating first quarter with a 44-28 lead.
2nd Quarter – Klay En Fuego
The bench unit did well to maintain the double-digit lead, as Shaun Livingston hit two jumpers, and Iguodala finished a fastbreak with a left-to-right behind-the-back dribble.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Ian Clark got some action with a layup in transition, Hill answered with two threes, one of them an “and-one” on Clark, then Ezeli exerted his physical will on the Pacers.
Ezeli made a baby hook, got a two-handed putback dunk off a missed runner off the board from Clark via the weave play up top, and absorbed contact in draining a righty hook from a Thompson left baseline drive.
By them time Livingston had swished that second jumper, the Warriors had themselves a 20-point lead, 62-42, with 6:13 to play in the half.
But a George three capped a 7-0 run in response from the Pacers, including some nice play from Rodney Stuckey, and Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton took a timeout with 4:50 left, up 62-49.
The SplashBrothers then led another charge, as Thompson got a catch-and-shoot to drop from the right wing, Curry got a back-pass from the post from Iguodala good for three, then after Green made a swooping hook and took a charge on George, Klay hit two more treys as George gambled for a steal and missed, then got a pass at the right wing from Steph up top and drilled the catch-and-shoot.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
The Warriors were back up, 76-55, with 1:51 remaining.
After another Miles three-pointer, the only Pacer that rose up to the challenge, Hill made a bad up-pass to Ellis at the top, the ball went free towards half-court, and Bogut dove to tap the ball to Curry, who was at the top of the arc with one defender.
He feigned a three then dished to Thompson wide open on the left wing, and Klay swished yet another trey, his eighth three-pointer of the game.
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
After Bogut checked out of the game tending to his back, which had already been strained two games ago, George stole the ball from Curry, converted the runout layup, then traded missed threes with Curry to end the half.
Golden State took a commanding 79-60 into halftime as Thompson led all scorers with 29 points on 9-for-11 field, 8-for-10 downtown, with Curry at 16 points, while George led Indiana with 18.
Oh, and Steph threw this down in warmups
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via NBAE/Getty)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
