ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Two nights after disposing the Clippers, the Golden State Warriors (64-7) were back home again to face the depleted Dallas Mavericks.
The Warriors were without Andre Iguodala (ankle), Kevon Looney (hip), and Festus Ezeli (knee rehab).
The Mavs were without Dirk Nowitzki (rest, facing back-to-back games coming up), Deron Williams (abdominal strain), Devin Harris (birth of his child), Jeremy Evans (shoulder), and Chandler Parsons (knee).
Prior to tipoff, David Lee finally received his championship ring:
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1st Quarter – Warriors En Fuego From Downtown
The Warriors came out on-point as Klay Thompson drilled a three on their first possession, assisted by Draymond Green from the top, followed by a left-corner triple from Stephen Curry, again assisted by Green as Harrison Barnes ran a misdirection cut.
Things got a little unfair for a moment as, from a baseline out-of-bounds play, Klay got the ball in the left corner, dished to Andrew Bogut who immediately gave Curry a reverse between-the-legs pass as Steph wheeled around Thompson, then Bogut slipped to the hoop and Curry lobbed a beautiful assist to Bogut for the dunk:
Beautiful lob on @csnauthentic! pic.twitter.com/Yt4PpnmI6S
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) March 26, 2016
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After that, Barnes hit a turnaround, Bogut tipped in a missed Curry layup, and after J.J. Barea missed a left-side attack with Bogut showing his presence, Steph took the ball up, stopped, and passed the ball to Klay, who drilled the trey from the right arc:
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Mavs head coach Rick Carlisle called timeout 7:54 remaining as the Warriors went up, 15-11, Dallas getting buoyed by a variety of jumpers from Raymond Felton.
The momentum continued after the timeout as Barnes posted up and banked a shot over the smaller Barea, Green swished a triple from the left arc, then after Barea answered with his own three, came back with another trey from the top in early offense.
Thompson added another three-pointer, his third of the night, from the right wing, and the Warriors had a 26-17 lead with 5:53 to play.
But the Mavs fought back as Wesley Matthews hit a tough long jumper, Lee, who got the start in place of the resting Nowitzki, made a layup, and Barea hit two triples in a row, answered by just one three in return from the Warriors in the person of Curry.
With 3:10 to go, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called a timeout as Dallas cut the Golden State lead to just 29-27.
During the timeout, Bogut headed to the locker room.
To close out the opening period, the Warriors got blocked shots by Curry from behind on Charlie Villanueva and Green on Lee, Steph got a left arc pull-up after shedding Felton on a pick from Draymond and with Zaza Pachulia to slow to react, and Curry made two of four free throws in the quarter to give him 13 points.
The Warriors, who shot 8-for-14 from downtown, took a 40-33 lead after one.
2nd Quarter – Another Day, Another Buzzer-Beater
Pachulia started the second stanza with two free throws on a foul by Barnes, then Felton hit another jumper to give him 11 points on the night, but on Marreese Speights’ second shot of the night, he swished a three from the left arc, fed by Brandon Rush:
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Dwight Powell missed a jumper, then Shaun Livingston tracked down the rebound in motion and brought the ball up, pulling up for a jumper at the free throw line.
The Warriors went up, 45-37, and with 9:01 left, Carlisle took another timeout.
Meanwhile, on the bench Curry revealed that he was part Minion:
Gotta get your fruits in ??? pic.twitter.com/nMw8C6Gzhg
— Mayo Highlights (@MayoHighlights) March 26, 2016
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The Warriors kept the pace up, as Green got a layup streaking to the paint, dished by Curry, Rush blocked a jumper by Lee, corralled by Thompson.
Klay dribbled the ball up and, as seen after every practice or shootaround, stopped at the three-point line and converted the three:
Fast break @klaythompson #SPLASH on @csnauthentic pic.twitter.com/Zq3FZm7r1q
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) March 26, 2016
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Lee answered with a bucket inside, but Steph came right back, attacking the paint and getting an up-and-under scoop to trickle in:
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After Barea missed a reverse layup, Green rebounded, brought the ball up, and had two wide-open targets on the left: the #SplashBrothers!
He hit Curry on the left side while Thompson was at the left wing, Steph got in his shooting motion, and Klay turned to start a premature celebration.
The only problem was, Curry faked the three and passed it to Thompson, who wasn’t expecting the ball. Luckily for the Warriors, the ball caromed off a Mav out of bounds on the sideline…
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…but Kerr put a stop to the silliness and called timeout with Golden State holding a 62-51 lead with 2:27 to play.
The Warriors kept the momentum going, though, as Green got his 7th assist on a triple by Ian Clark from the left corner, Curry got hit on a drive, but only split the pair of throws, finally answered by Lee with a putback “and-one”, fouled by Clark.
But utilizing the “two-for-one” strategy, Steph crossed over Matthews and stepped back from the deep right wing and swished, Curry’s foot on the line, with 28.4 seconds to play.
Then after Barea went short on a runner in the paint with 6 seconds left, Steph boarded, brought the ball up, and with 3 ticks to go, launched from the 35 feet away at the left hashmark as Matthews was in “prevent” defense and big man Salah Mejri too far and slow by the arc to make a difference:
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Matthews was not happy with Mejri as they walked to the locker room, and the Warriors held a 72-58 lead at halftime.
Curry led all scorers with 22 points (also 5 assists) while Klay added 18 points, both of them the same 4-for-6 from beyond the arc. Draymond had 10 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds.
Barea led the Mavs with 16 points, while Lee had 11 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @presidentcurry)
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