ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Oklahoma City Thunder at the Golden State Warriors, Game 1 of the 2016 Western Conference Finals.
The Warriors took a 60-47 lead into halftime on a Stephen Curry buzzer-beater:
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3rd Quarter
Curry got the Warriors off on the wrong foot, with this careless turnover:
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But he atoned soon thereafter, with a “day-at-the-office” triple:
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However, Russell Westbrook put on the cape for the Thunder, hitting this triple at the shotclock buzzer…
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…and hitting this one from the top…
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Draymond Green eventually answered with a runner, drawing contact for an “and-one” against Westbrook:
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Klay Thompson responded with this nifty move inside…
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…then made a nice upfake that led to a beautiful floater…
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…and Curry added a banking triple over Enes Kanter….
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…and that gave Golden State an 81-69 lead approaching three minutes remaining in the period.
OKC chipped away, as Steph added two more turnovers on a bad lob and scoop pass, both intended for Festus Ezeli.
Steven Adams even converted both free throws after Warriors head coach Steve Kerr ordered a hack on him.
Draymond made a lefty layup then an impressive stop-and-pop over Kanter…
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…but Adams hit two more from the line and Kevin Durant got a scoop inside traffic with 8.6 seconds to play.
Shaun Livingston couldn’t get a jumper over Kanter to drop, and the Thunder were within one possession heading into the final frame, 88-85.
The Warriors gave up 38 points in the period.
4th Quarter
Durant got the Thunder off to a good start, hitting a three on their first possession of the fourth quarter, and after Thompson turned the ball over to Dion Waiters on a strip where Klay wanted the foul, Waiters scored on a sweeping layup, then added a catch-and-shoot triple assisted by Durant, after Marreese Speights came in and made one of two free throws.
With 8:05 remaining, OKC had a 95-91 lead.
Draymond got a “stick-to-it-iveness” play…
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…but later, Curry had Kanter on him, gave up the ball to Green, and Draymond missed a three from straightaway, short, when he probably should have given the ball back to Steph.
Curry and Thompson also couldn’t find the bottom of the net, missing a couple threes. After Harrison Barnes added yet another miss from downtown, Curry finally got one to drop, the Warriors were down 101-96 with 4:23 to play and #Roaracle was on its feet.
The Warriors stepped up their defense, with Durant missing fade-aways over draped defenders such as Andre Iguodala and Green, but the calls weren’t going Golden State’s way, as Dion Waiters fouled Iguodala on the offensive rebound and was called inexplicably for a foul on the floor instead of two free throws for Iguodala:
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Curry eventually got blocked on a layup by Durant, but then also committed his seventh turnover on a bad lefty sling pass.
Barnes made a clutch fade-away in the paint, with Steph being chucked with no call off-ball by Waiters:
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This cut the Thunder lead to 101-100 with 2:01 to go, but Steven Adams made clutch free throws again, and Klay missed a reverse…
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Durant hit a pull-up by crossing over Iguodala on the right side, iso’ed, and that iced the game, 105-100, with 30.7 seconds left:
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Iguodala made an upfake-layup to pull the Warriors to within one possession, then on the made basket, Golden State did their best to trap, and Russell Westbrook nearly fell victim to the non-fouling approach, but the refs awarded him a timeout despite the obvious traveling violation.
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Iguodala had to foul Westbrook on the inbound after the timeout, the Warriors couldn’t answer with catch-and-shoot threes that the Thunder were waiting for, with Steph missing both tries, and OKC escaped Oakland with a 1-0 series lead, winning 108-102.
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