This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Houston Rockets.
The Warriors took a 61-59 lead into the third period.
3rd Quarter – Klay Gets Hot Again, But McAdoo Provides The Spark
Klay Thompson started out hitting his first two shots, a turnaround before Dwight Howard got in range…
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
…and a catch-and-pivot three-pointer from the top…
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
…but Trevor Ariza answered with a three of his own, and Patrick Beverley got a floater to drop after James Harden bolted past Shaun Livingston and Klay had to show for help.
On the other end, Livingston posted up the smaller Beverley, spun past him in the low left block, but was met by Howard, who may have hit Livingston in the head. There was no call, the shot was blocked, the ball trickled out, and Beverley couldn’t track it down before it went out of bounds.
Livingston, however, complained to the referee and was whistled for a technical. Green made sure to calm him down:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Later, Livingston cut down the lane, Thompson fed him, but Howard helped and Livingston traveled.
However, on the next possession, Beverley made a bad up-pass that Green stole and took the length off the court for a nice fast break layup, warding off Clint Capela with the off arm.
Thompson picked up his fourth personal as Harden got past Green on the next sequence, dishing to Capela with Klay hacking him.
Another impressive floater by Beverley, this time on the right baseline, put the Rockets up, 76-72, but Andre Iguodala tied the game on two consecutive buckets, one a tip-in from the left side of Livingston’s right-baseline missed jumper, and the other a dunk in transition as he slipped behind the Houston defense as Green brought the ball up following a missed three by Harden:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Iguodala followed that up with a laser-pass to Thompson, who caught the ball and made the layup in one motion…
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
…but it wasn’t until James McAdoo checked back in the game that the Warriors got some separation.
McAdoo, who got two stitches after getting fouled on a first-half dunk attempt, immediately got two offensive rebounds, but was blocked on the second try by Capela.
At the other end, McAdoo drew a rebounding foul on Marcus Thornton. then Klay got a hand-off from Ian Clark in the left corner and spun around Corey Brewer down the left side for a lefty scoop.
The next time the Warriors got the ball, Thompson missed a triple, but McAdoo got the offensive rebound and found Iguodala for an open three from the right wing, giving Golden State an 83-80 lead with 1:05 to go in the third quarter.
Iguodala made a nice close-out on Thornton’s three on the other end, then Clark found Klay for a catch-and-shoot trey:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
McAdoo followed that up with a clean long-armed steal of Ty Lawson side pass and went in for the run-out dunk, giving the Warriors an 88-80 cushion with 32.5 seconds to play and Rockets head coach J.B. Bickerstaff calling a much-needed timeout for Houston.
The period ended with Harden committing his fourth personal foul on the drive, then Clark missing a three at the buzzer.
Golden State took a 90-82 lead into the final frame.
4th Quarter – All-Around Contributions
Iguodala got a left corner three on a swing pass from Marreese Speights…
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
…then Livingston made a left-baseline turnaround with the shotclock winding down, and the Warriors had their biggest lead of the night, 97-87, with 9:51 remaining.
But the turnover bug hit again and, after Howard scored inside, Speights lost the ball on the high post against Dwight, which was finished by Thornton with a run-out layup, and Iguodala couldn’t handle the ball, although he was looking for a foul, and he stepped on the sideline.
With 7:52 to go, Walton re-inserted Green and Bogut.
Harden came back with a long “Euro-step” layup that, as Jim Barnett said on the broadcast, “would have been called traveling in the 1980’s”, Klay pulled a three over Harden…
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
…but Harden came back and pulled a three over Livingston from straightaway, drawing the Rockets to within 104-100 with 5:44 as Walton took a timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Rockets made an error, with Beverley hacking Bogut to try and accumulate team fouls approaching crunch time, but the foul was delivered before the ball was inbounded, and that gave two trips to the line to Bogut, who made the first but missed the second.
However, Green was there to tap the miss to Iguodala. Both teams couldn’t put the ball in the hole until Draymond grabbed a Harden step-back jumper over Iguodala that was short.
Green found Andre on the touchdown pass and the Warriors had a 107-102 lead with 3:33 left. It was Draymond’s 16th assist on the night:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Out of the timeout, Thornton missed a three and Iguodala found Bogut on the slip for an alley-oop:
Here comes the BOOM!
@andrewbogut #NBAVote pic.twitter.com/JjnJ0poZOs
— Golden St. Warriors (@warriors) January 1, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Thornton missed again on a floater that went short, and Klay got the soft-touch roll to fall on a catch-and-shoot from the free throw line.
That put Golden State up, 111-102, and Bickerstaff took another timeout with 2:23 to go and Houston running out of time.
Beverley tried a layup that was nicely contested by Green, Bogut’s shot-put in the lane was short, but Harden was blocked by Draymond and Thompson made another jumper in the lane for the nail in the coffin, 113-102, now with just 1:35 to play.
The only matter left was Green’s triple-double, and he missed a three-pointer from the left wing badly, but Beverley missed a floater that he’d been making all night, with Draymond grabbing his 11th rebound, the Warriors isolated Green on the left pinch post and he drew a foul driving to the hoop.
Green made the first free throw to give him the needed double-digits in scoring, missed the second, and Trevor Ariza made two meaningless treys as time wound down.
The Warriors (30-2) beat the Rockets by the final score of 114-110.
Thompson led all scorers with 38 points on 16-for-27 shooting, 6-for-11 downtown, to go along with 7 rebounds, while Draymond tallied 10 points, 16 assists, 11 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots. Bogut collected 11 rebounds and was 4-for-9 from the field. Livingston scored 13 points on 6-for-12 shooting to go along with 7 assists.
Off the bench, Iguodala totaled 20 points and 4 assists, while Clark chipped in 12 points on 4-for-9 shooting and McAdoo tallied 7 points and 3 rebounds in just 9 minutes of play.
Harden scored 30 points for the Rockets and Howard added 21 points, 13 rebounds in defeat.
Golden State heads back home to face the Denver Nuggets in two nights.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @anchamp4720)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
