ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — After spending nearly the last month on the road or at the All-Star festivities, the Golden State Warriors (53-5) were back in Oakland to face the Atlanta Hawks (33-27).
The Warriors were without Stephen Curry (left ankle), Andre Iguodala (left hamstring tightness), and Festus Ezeli (left knee surgery). The Hawks were without Tiago Splitter (right hip surgery).
1st Quarter – Livingston And Green Run The Point
Klay Thompson made his first two three-point attempts, getting his first catch-and-shoot to rattle in from the right wing, then after a three from the top by Paul Millsap, followed that up with another bomb from the right arc, this time swishing it through:
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Andrew Bogut was active, getting a tap-out on a defensive board, then an offensive putback on the next sequence, going with the short lefty hook to give the Warriors an early 8-5 lead in less than two minutes of opening play.
Draymond Green and Shaun Livingston got into the action, as Green drove in with a nifty spin and lobbed the ball to Livingston, who slammed it home with one hand from the left side of the rim, although the official scorer charged Green with a missed shot and gave Livingston a put-back:
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Al Horford then missed a jumper, Green got the rebound, Bogut ran the floor, and got a dunk as Draymond delivered the two-handed touchdown pass:
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Millsap’s right baseline jumper went short, Livingston boarded, brought the ball up and Green trailed on the right wing for a triple. Hawks head coach MIke Budenholzer called timeout as the Warriors’ lead stretched to 15-8 with 8:16 to go.
Thompson missed his next three shots, however, and the Hawks climbed back to a 17-15 deficit as Millsap rebounded a Jeff Teague missed three and reloaded for Kyle Korver, who didn’t miss his.
Soon thereafter, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr called timeout with 3:52 remaining.
Brandon Rush and, eventually, Ian Clark and Marreese Speights checked in. Green made a nice move to the hoop…
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…then got an alley-oop dunk fed by Klay…
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…before Thompson had to sit down with two personal fouls.
Speights got a nice volleyball swat of Horford…
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…but Hawks bench player Mike Scott hit a three.
With 11 seconds to go, Green, acting as backup point guard in the absence of Curry, found a cutting Clark, who dished back out to a wide-open Rush from the top, and Rush drilled the triple.
Atlanta backup point guard attacked the paint on their last possession, but a back-pass from underneath the rim trickled away, Rush picked it up, dribbled past half-court, launched a running three-pointer, and it banked off too hard at the buzzer, but Golden State held a 32-26 lead after the opening quarter.
Millsap led all scorers with 9 points on 4-for-6 from the line, while Draymond talled 7 points, 4 assists, and Klay added 6 points. Livingston collected 5 rebounds.
2nd Quarter – Barbosa Sparks, Bogut Dunks
Leandro Barbosa was a huge spark off the bench, and buoyed the Warriors at the start of the second quarter, getting two layups and a three-pointer.
Anderson Varejao checked in early, got a nice hand from Oracle, and promptly scored a layup down the left side of the lane.
But Varejao’s next attempt, initiated with that upfake that we’re growing accustomed to, went too hard. Luckily, Barnes was on the other side of the board and slammed the putback home with two hands.
After a timeout by Budenholzer, Barbosa wasn’t done, getting into the lane, hanging as much as the 30-year-old could, and dropping off a pass to a trailing Barnes for another bucket at the rim. That gave the Warriors a 45-34 lead with 8:08 to go.
But Teague hit a triple, then after a Rush miss, Kent Bazemore got the rebound and scored a layup in transition. Kerr didn’t like how things were trending and called a timeout with 6:54 remaining, the Warriors lead evaporated to 45-39.
However, not long thereafter, Bazemore made a bad pass that Green stole, and Barnes capitalized with a fast break layup, and Budenholzer put a stop to their momentary sloppiness with a timeout of his own.
Kerr re-inserted the starters and Bogut went on an alley-oop binge, getting this nice finesse lay-in from Green…
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…then another dunk via Draymond again, which was Green’s seventh assist, after Thompson made a three off one dribble from the left arc:
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Klay got into the Bogut alley-oop spree as he went down the lane and fed him this beauty…
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…which gave the Warriors a 58-44 lead approaching the end of the first half.
There was also this “tic-tac-toe” starting with a steal from Draymond, then to Thompson, then to Barnes:
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With 26.1 seconds remaining, Clark hit two free throws after getting hit on an outlet by Green on a fast break, Kerr inserted James McAdoo for his first appearance in a very long time, and Golden State took a 59-48 lead into halftime.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @___jo)
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