ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors (0-1) welcomed Marreese Speights and the Los Angeles Clippers (0-0) for the Warriors’ second preseason game.
The Warriors were without Kevon Looney (groin), Damian Jones (pectoral surgery), and Elliot Williams (right knee surgery).
1st Quarter – Addition By Threes
Kevin Durant, introduced first in the starting lineups to loud cheers, got the crowd going early after Zaza Pachulia boarded a missed Chris Paul layup and Stephen Curry took the ball up, up-faked from the left wing, to find Durant wide open for a trey that dropped, no problem:
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J.J. Redick then got a backdoor layup behind Curry, but Steph struck back immediately, with a touchdown pass to Klay Thompson for a lay-in.
After both teams traded free throws, with Draymond Green and Pachulia splitting their trips to the charity stripe, the Warriors flexed their three-point muscle.
It started with a Durant block of a jumper right baseline by Luc Mbah A Moute, the ball going off the Clipper for a turnover, then Golden State ran a wheel play off Pachulia, and after Durant cut through, Curry was left open on the left wing, too late on the close-out by Paul.
Steph easily side-stepped the left arc for a three, and the Warriors went up, 10-5:
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Durant wasn’t done on the defensive end, deflecting an attack from DeAndre Jordan, although Blake Griffin eventually got the offensive rebound, and the sequence fizzled out as Green got called for an offensive foul on the other end.
But Redick missed a three, Green rebounded, raced upcourt, found Durant on the left wing, who swung the ball over to Thompson in the left corner for a catch-and-shoot triple.
Redick came back but was short again on a jumper, Curry got the board, outlet to KD, who found Draymond this time in the right corner. Three more, which made it 16-5, Warriors, with 7:21 remaining as Clippers head coach Doc Rivers called timeout.
Out of the timeout, Griffin slipped against pressure defense on the deep perimeter, and the Warriors pounced, stifling the Clippers two more times as the shot clock wound down.
Eventually, Griffin had to throw the ball up, but Curry stuffed him and the shotclock buzzer went off.
On the next play, Green circled around Zaza at the pinch post, Jordan left the lane open, and Draymond finished with a dunk. Later, with 5:58 to play, Andre Iguodala subbed out Durant, to cheers, of course.
After free throws by Mbah A Moute, Klay hit a three from the right wing to give the Warriors a two-touchdown lead, 21-7, as they totaled 5-for-7 from downtown.
Thompson added a long two, then Speights made his first appearance to cheers with 4:37 to go. Shortly after, Shaun Livingston and Kevin Durant spelled Klay and Zaza, and after a miss by Austin Rivers, Draymond went down the lane for another dunk:
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Later, with David West hitting a jumper, Speights hit a left-wing banker beyond the arc and over the lunge of Durant, as he had helped West iso’ed at the top against speedster Jamal Crawford.
Speights added another deep three at the top over KD again, but the Warriors struck back as Livingston cut to the hole for a soft two-handed dunk on a feed from West at the elbow, with the hockey assist to Klay behind-the-back style.
Durant missed a two-for-one pull-up, but after Crawford got smothered by Thompson for a banking brick, KD rebounded and went coast-to-coast past Speights for a layup with 3.9 seconds left.
Speights did his best to counter, back-rimming a halfcourt bomb at the buzzer.
The Warriors took a commanding 35-19 lead after the first period.
2nd Quarter – More Dominance
Golden State started the second quarter with Thompson breaking off Rivers on a “fake” pick, with West supplying another assist to the basket, then Klay hit a three, but the Clippers answered with a Wes Johnson jumper and a Rivers-to Griffin two-hand slam.
Durant then got iso’ed on the right baseline against Griffin and rose for a jumper to put the Warriors up, 42-24, with 9:53 remaining.
Speights tried to answer with an attack of his pal Iguodala, but Livingston came in to help and they both knocked the ball away. Iguodala got subbed out after that and had a few friendly words with “Mo” on his way to the bench.
Out of a timeout, Klay decided to launch a three over Jordan that airballed, but Pachulia was there to corral the miss and bounce the ball off a Clip out of bounds.
With 8:16 to play, Patrick McCaw got his first call to come in for Thompson.
West made a big step past Griffin for a layup on the right baseline, Green drew a charge on Paul, which “CP3” didn’t argue, perhaps showing respect for the Defensive Player Of The Year candidate, and Curry then fed West for a dunk.
Steph turned things up a notch after Brandon Bass missed a jumper. Isolated with Bass on him on the right side, Curry gave Bass a double-crossover move, going behind-the-back to finish things off with a floater on the right baseline.
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Durant continued to tally points, this time from the free throw line, via deep post up baseline, this time against Jordan, then after a Rivers missed three, Green fed KD on the right wing for three more.
Klay added a three from the right wing as well, and the Warriors’ lead ballooned to 63-29.
Durant kept playing focused close-out defense, getting Johnson to take a bad jumper from the left side.
The Warriors’ defense stayed on point as Steph stole the ball from Jordan, leading to penalty free throws, Durant did work on attacks, getting to the charity stripe again to go 6-for-6 for the half, and Draymond closed things out with a pick of Crawford’s entry pass, leading the break, jumping up in the paint and lobbing to Durant for a lay-in at the last moment, with just 18 seconds remaining.
Curry almost topped that, as only Steph can, as Rivers missed a three over Green at the buzzer. Steph got the rebound and heaved from three-quarters court, only to back-rim as the crowd was in awe and Durant gave him a little pat on the head.
Golden State took a 71-33 lead into halftime over Los Angeles. Thompson led all scorers with 24 point on 8-for-11 field, 4-for-6 treys, while Durant added 18 points on 5-for-8 shooting, plus 5 rebounds and 4 assists. Steph had a modest 7 points, 3 rebounds, 5 assists, and Draymond added 7 boards.
Speights led the Clips with 10 points off the bench as LA was held to 24.4% shooting (10-for-41) and 3-for-13 from beyond the arc.
The Warriors had 19 assists on 22 field goals made.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @akramer6)
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