ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Memphis Grizzlies at the Golden State Warriors, in pursuit of #QuestFor73.
The Warriors took a 70-50 lead into halftime.
3rd Quarter – More Flurries
Later, #Roaracle got a scare as Lance Stephenson turned the ball over and, on a cross-court pass from Draymond Green to Curry, Zach Randolph charged up from behind and made blindside contact with Steph, hurling Curry to the floor.
The crowd stood up to see the action, but luckily, Curry got up and seemed unharmed.
Green then turned a side inbound into an alley-oop to Andrew Bogut with Curry running a misdirection play on the same side as Bogut, and Draymond turned around to point to the bench as if to say, “Good call.”
But the Grizzlies went on a mini-run as the Warriors made some sloppy plays and a JaMychal Green putback brought Memphis back to within 88-74 with 3:23 remaining.
But Draymond made a post-up move, Curry crossed over Stephenson to attack the rim with a high-arcing scoop, Green added a swish from beyond the arc up top, and Curry pulled up over Randolph again, plus added a right-side three-ball dished by Andrew Bogut with 3.4 seconds to play over Xavier Munford, and the Warriors had a dominating lead again, 102-81.
Steph tallied 46 points, 21 in the quarter, to go along with 10-for-19 from the arc, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds. Draymond collected 11 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists.
4th Quarter – 73 In Sight
Kerr got a layup for Barbosa on a misdirection on the baseline out-of-bounds play after the timeout, fed by Shaun Livingston, and that sparked the Warriors, getting stops, a missed dunk by Barnes nearly hitting #BlackFalcon mode, and a Marreese Speights layup.
That put the Warriors back up, 120-98, as Joerger called another timeout with 4:18 to play.
Kerr brought in James McAdoo and Brandon Rush to go along with Iguodala, Barbosa, and Speights, then Anderson Varejao for Speights after Speights, who ended with 12 points, missed a top three in and out.
Rush added a catch-and-shoot swish from the right arc to put the Warriors up 125-102, and the final score ended 125-104.
The Warriors ended the season at 73-9, an NBA record for a regular season, breaking the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ record of 72-10.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @ablumberg17)
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