QUICKEN LOANS ARENA, CLEVELAND, OH — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Warriors held a 70-44 lead after the second quarter.
3rd Quarter – Complete Domination
Klay Thompson picked up right where the Warriors left off in the second quarter by getting a layup on a cut, also Stephen Curry’s third assist of the night, then hitting a dribble-and-pop freed up by an on-ball screen from Andrew Bogut, which made it 74-44, Golden State.
The Cavs only reliable weapon in the first half, J.R. Smith, then gave Harrison Barnes a hard foul, the refs reviewed the play, and ejected Smith with a Flagrant Foul 2 ruling with 10:41 still to play:
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After Barnes canned both freebies, Curry set a pick on LeBron James then popped up to the right wing and drained the triple, making it 79-44, Golden State:
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Kyrie Irving swished a catch-and-shoot three from the right side and Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton saw something he didn’t like and called timeout to disrupt any possible run by the Cavs. Golden State led, 79-47, with 8:32 to go.
Later, Curry drained a left-corner trey assisted by Andre Iguodala, who had slithered past James, then Steph missed badly a heat-check from the top off the in-and-out right-handed dribble, but caught a zinger from Draymond, his 10th assist on a Statue-Of-Liberty one-handed catch-and-layin:
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Green imitated the shot trotting back on defense in celebration, but James Jones got an “and-one” on Thompson.
The quarter ended with another mini-flurry of Warriors buckets: a Curry left corner triple from Iguodala while going past James on a pick-and-roll, an Iguodala three from the left corner, a Leandro Barbosa dribble-and-pop after getting swatted on a fastbreak by LeBron, and another Steph three from the right corner with 41.3 seconds remaining, giving him 35 points and Golden State an incredible 40-point lead, 104-64.
A Matthew Dellavedova three ended the quarter at 104-67.
4th Quarter – Mop-Up
After escaping his 6th foul on an overruled call, Festus Ezeli exited early in the 4th quarter after grabbing at Anderson Varejao on a fast break alley oops pass.
Brandon Rush checked in for Andre and Mo Speights got his first minutes of the game replacing Festus with just under 9 minutes to play in the game.
Jason Thompson and Leandro Barbosa soon joined them to complete the finishing lineup along with Ian Clark.
Clark did most of the shooting late, finishing 2-7 for the game with 6 points.
The game took a messy turn with the end of both benches on the court, but the Warriors (38-4) still managed 28 points in the quarter to give them the 132-98 win in Cleveland.
For the game, Curry finished with 35 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Green added 16 points, 7 rebounds and 10 assists, while Iguodala showed up big with 20 points on 7-for-8 shooting to go with 3 rebounds, 5 assists and fantastic defense on James.
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