ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors took a 73-59 lead into the third quarter.
3rd Quarter – Some Sloppiness
The Thunder scored the first two baskets of the third quarter as Dion Waiters and Russell Westbrook scored consecutive jumpers, then Stephen Curry got a rather careless pass deflected by Kevin Durant and Andrew Bogut committed a foul to stop the break, his fourth, sending him to the bench.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr put in Marreese Speights for Bogut and Speights took advantage of the opportunity.
Speights started with a putback of a missed layup by Draymond Green, then after a Durant miss and a Klay Thompson drive-spin-jumper, “Mo” drilled a jumper from the right wing as Steven Adams left him open as Curry took the pick from Speights and dribbled to the top.
Later, Steph got a steal from Durant’s lost in-and-out dribble, then scissored through the Thunder transition defense for a lefty reverse.
Adams missed a layup and, in traffic, Green deflected the rebound off the backboard, Curry corralled it, then led the break and finished with a jump-stop finger roll against a retreating Serge Ibaka:
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Thunder head coach Billy Donovan called timeout as the Warriors took an 83-65 lead with 6:58 remaining.
Out of the timeout, Thompson committed two straight turnovers, one on a bad pass and one on a bad dribble, but after that, Curry found himself switched onto by Adams, Steph danced around the OKC big man and lasered the ball to Speights under the hoop wide open for the easy layup:
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Westbrook came back with a quick layup and stared at the #Roaracle crowd as he got the “and-one” call on Green, to a chorus of boos, but Curry ran pick-and-roll with Speights once more and, this time, Speights got the slip and made an extra flip pass to Draymond under the hoop for the point-blank layup.
With 4:31 to go, the Warriors held an 87-72 lead.
Bogut checked back in, but was ineffective, as he turned the ball over, shot an airball with a lefty, and picked up his fifth personal trying to draw a charge on 50/50 call against Durant.
Andre Iguodala fouled Durant on a trey attempt, Cameron Payne drilled a three, and all of a sudden the Thunder were within eight points, 89-81, with just under a minute to go.
Curry dissected the Thunder defense for a much-needed bucket, but Durant answered with a two-hand dunk on a split of a Warriors help double-team:
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Ending the quarter, Curry’s three from the left wing went in-and-out and Payne missed a stepback at the buzzer as the Warriors took a 91-83 lead into the final frame.
4th Quarter – Warriors’ Veterans Hold Off KD And OKC
The Warriors started out the fourth going 1-for-6 from the field. Enes Kanter scored two straight buckets for the Thunder, the second a dunk on a vintage drive by Westbrook, and OKC had the game closed to within 98-87 with 9:06 to play.
But Shaun Livingston came right back with two jumpers over Westbrook and Payne as the game see-sawed back to Golden State.
Westbrook found Kanter two more times in a row and the second one was fouled by Harrison Barnes to re-close the Warriors lead back to 99-92 as the next timeout occurred with 6:27 left.
Stephen Curry got into the lane but he missed the bank shot, then Durant secured the rebound, came up the other end and then hit a big three to cut the deficit to 4. With the Warriors leading 99-95 with 6:11 remaining, they looked to their veterans to come up with the big plays.
Shaun Livingston was fouled by Dion Waiters and he converted just one free throw. Russell Westbrook then missed a 3, he secured the offensive rebound and was fouled by Green. He made both free throws and the score was 100-97 in the Warriors’ favour with 5:22 to go.
Everyone in Oracle Arena then got onto their feet as the Warriors looked for a much needed field goal – the ball moved around the court, Steph passed to Livingston who then found Harrison Barnes at the top of the key for the splash. Kevin Durant answered with his own three pointer over Draymond Green and the score was 103-100 with 4:53 to go.
Stephen Curry then missed another three (1-8 from three), Serge Ibaka rebounded the ball, Durant got past HB and then got to the free throw line for two. Kevin Durant converted on both and the Warriors’ lead was only 1 with 4:24 to go in the game.
Andre Iguodala checked in for Shaun Livingston, Curry missed a the lefty floater over Kanter, Green rebounded the ball and was fouled by Ibaka. He split the pair of free throws to give the Warriors a 3 point lead.
Russell Westbrook missed a shot, everyone fought for the rebound and the refs ruled it a jump ball between Kanter and Barnes. OKC secured the ball and Enes Kanter hit a big fadeaway jumper to level the scores at 104-104 with 3:35 to go.
Kanter then fouled Draymond Green and he split another pair of free throws after OKC called a timeout. The lead was 105-104 in the Warriors’ favour.
Westbrook missed a pull up over Klay, Green rebounded the ball, Klay missed a step back short after getting the pick from Draymond, Durant missed the pull up over Iguodala, Draymond Green rebounded the ball again and then found Stephen Curry for the layup as he split in between Westbrook and Kanter. 107-104 with 2:23 was the score.
Durant then missed another three over Klay Thompson, who defended it extremely well. Curry utilized the pick and found his Splash Brother with the cross court sling pass as Klay Thompson splashed the left corner three. That triple gave the Warriors a 110-104 lead with 1:40 to go.
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Westbrook was fouled by Klay and hit two free throws but then Draymond Green found Stephen Curry for the lay-up.
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Green then fouled Durant and he hit both free throws. The Warriors held a 4 point lead with 50 seconds to go.
Stephen Curry then got Durant switched onto him and hit the pull up jumper shot from the right elbow to stretch the lead to 6 with 33 seconds to go.
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Durant missed a shot, the ball came off of Curry’s foot but then he picked it up just before it went out of bounds and he threw the ball over his head to a streaking Andre Iguodala who slammed it home.
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The lead was 8 with 16 seconds to go and that was enough for the Warriors to move to 46-4.
Final Score: 116-108 Warriors (46-4). Curry finished with 26 points & Green secured some clutch rebounds as he finished with 14 of them.
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