This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the San Antonio Spurs.
The Spurs took a 43-37 lead into halftime.
3rd Quarter – Warriors Hit Shots, But No Floodgates Open
Draymond Green started the third with a triple thanks to a nice spin-then-drive by Stephen Curry along the left baseline, then a sling pass to Harrison Barnes on the right wing, then an unselfish extra pass to Green at the top:
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But Kawhi Leonard hit a three, but Draymond answered with this jam down the right side:
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Boris Diaw got a swooping layup past Barnes to tickle the rim and drop, and Tony Parker drilled a right corner three.
However, Barnes answered right back with his own triple:
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Then Klay Thompson added a dribble-spin-swish to make it 51-47, Spurs, with 8:21 remaining.
Thompson added this catch-and-shoot triple over Parker…
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…but the teams continued to trade punch for punch even as Curry got a lefty to drop on a drive down the lane after a near-turnover.
Steph finally hit a three with a difficult lefty behind-the-back dribble-and-pop over LaMarcus Aldridge:
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Leonard seemed to lose his dribble on the next possession, but no carrying violation was called, and Parker ended up open from the right corner for three after a couple swing passes.
Aldridge added free throws after Curry seemingly got body-slammed by Danny Green under the hoop after dissecting the perimeter and missing a lefty scoop:
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But Kawhi committed his third personal foul holding Curry on a slip of a pick-and-roll, Leandro Barbosa checked in, and promptly hit a three from the left arc to close the Spurs’ lead to 60-58.
After Manu Ginobili hit a three on an offensive rebound by Leonard, plus an Aldridge jump hook over the shorter Draymond, Barbosa struck again with a triple from the right arc at the shotclock buzzer, as the Warriors had trouble getting the ball to Steph on multiple attempts at various screens.
Soon after, there was a timeout and, out of the timeout, David West came in, first off the bench instead of Tim Duncan, and promptly tried to foul James McAdoo with a “Hack-A-Mac”. The only problem was, it was the Spurs side inbound. The refs blew the whistle, but then retracted it, claiming “inadvertent whistle”.
Steph stole an entry pass from Ginobili to Aldridge, but the Warriors couldn’t capitalize even after Kerr countered by bringing in Marreese Speights for McAdoo, as Draymond airballed from the left corner.
After a Boris Diaw miss, Ginobili was too physical with Curry on the rebound and Steph made both penalty throws.
Ginobili missed a three on their final possession, Curry got the rebound, but Draymond dribbled out of bounds on a pick-and-roll switch versus Patty Mills, then Diaw’s scoop came after the buzzer and the game was tied, 65-65, heading into the final frame.
4th Quarter – Still Can’t Hit Treys
The Golden State bench unit came out to start the fourth quarter and played championship-level defense against the second-stringers of San Antonio.
After Speights opened with a jumper up top assisted by Livingston…
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…Livingston started the clamp-down with a deflection of Danny Green’s left arc triple attempt at the shotclock buzzer…
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…but after some empty trips, Diaw got a bucket inside, Green missed again at the shotclock buzzer, and Diaw put back a layup by Green disrupted by Barnes.
Although they played great defense, the Warriors couldn’t put the ball in the hold with the slow pace, and Golden State head coach Steve Kerr called timeout with 8:29 remaining and the score still tied, 69-69.
Out of the timeout and late in the shotclock, Anderson Varejao got a lefty pass to a cutting Barnes for a two-hand slam…
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…but Parker assisted Aldridge on a jumper from the left elbow. It appeared that Parker did an illegal hop-stop, but there was no call.
Varejao missed, Aldridge made him pay with a bucket inside, Klay threw the ball away from the right baseline trying to find Barnes on the opposite side, stolen by Diaw, and Diaw missed but a carom got him the ball right back for a layup, and Kerr burned another timeout as the Spurs took a 75-71 lead with 5:58 to go.
Out of the timeout, Kerr re-inserted Curry and Draymond, and Barnes got a right-side triple to drop as Draymond drove into the paint:
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Aldridge missed a jumper, but Steph also missed a pull-up trey over Aldridge, and that would be as close as the Warriors would get for awhile.
Danny Green hit a three from the right corner over a lunging Barnes after Aldridge missed twice…
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…and the bigger Spurs retained possession with various tips, including a Barnes grab of Aldridge’s jersey, although Draymond made a beautiful swat of Parker just prior to that:
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Rush answered with a triple from the left corner as Klay went past Parker, but Danny Green got a driving lefty to fall as the Warriors bench asked the refs for another traveling violation — well, maybe Kerr was a little stronger in his request:
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The Warriors couldn’t capitalize as Barnes threw the ball into the backcourt trying to swing it back to Steph up top, then out of a side inbound after a timeout, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich had Leonard cut off a high pinch from Diaw, and got the call against Draymond, despite the verticality. Kawhi made both free throws to go up, 82-77, with just 2:39 to play.
Thompson got a drive through the lane to drop, but Aldridge took advantage of his height over Barnes and swished a step-back against the Warriors’ small-ball.
Golden State couldn’t crack through the five-point buffer, as Barnes missed from beyond the arc, and even after Draymond got a rebound of an Aldridge miss, Curry missed from deep again, back-rimming a pull from deep straightaway over Parker.
Eventually, Leonard got fouled, missed the first throw, but gave the Spurs an 85-79 lead with 22.8 seconds left as Kerr called another timeout.
Running out of time, Klay missed a three from the left corner, Livingston corralled the board, found Curry, but he missed, hitting the back rim yet again, and with 11.5 seconds to play, they fouled Diaw.
San Antonio put the final nail in the coffin as Diaw hit both free throws, then Barnes missed a deep two from the left baseline and Steph got the rebound and missed a meaningless pivot-and-launch three from the right corner at the buzzer.
The Spurs won, 87-79, as Steph and Klay combined to go 2-for-19 from downtown. Overall, the Warriors were just 9-for-36 (25%) from distance, 31-for-82 in total from the field (37.8%), and were outrebounded, 53-37.
The 79 points were Golden State’s lowest output of the season, as Thompson led the team with 15 points and Curry had just 14, to go along with 6 rebounds and 6 assists. Draymond tallied 11 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists.
Aldridge led San Antonio with 26 points on 11-for-25 shooting, and 13 rebounds. Kawhi collected 18 points and 14 rebounds and Parker added 6 assists.
The Warriors (62-7) now lead the Spurs by 3 games in the race for the No. 1 seed and head to Minnesota to play the Timberwolves in two nights.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @andypal1203)
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