Three nights after dropping their season opener, the Golden State Warriors (0-1) were in “NOLA” to face the New Orleans Pelicans (0-1).
The Warriors listed James McAdoo and Damian Jones (pectoral surgery) as inactive, while the decimated Pelicans were without Tyreke Evans (knee), Quincy Pondexter (knee), and Jrue Holiday (personal).
1st Quarter – Strong, Focused
Anthony Davis, who scored 50 points two nights ago in the Pelicans’ season debut, got off to a great start, getting an inside reverse bucket on a nice feed from the perimeter by E’Twaun Moore.
After a jumper by Klay Thompson, assisted by Draymond Green, Davis went at it again, taking Green off the dribble for a long, swooping runner.
The Warriors answered back again, this time with Stephen Curry hitting a catch-and-shoot from the left arc, his 154th straight regular season game hitting a trey, 114 straight on the road, both NBA records.
Kevin Durant missed his first attempt, a three-pointer, but later got a dribble-and-pop, Draymond’s third straight assist, but Davis made a carbon copy runner and the closed the gap to 9-8, Golden State.
But Thompson answered back later with a drive-and-dish to Zaza Pachulia, who shoveled the ball in.
After a couple empty possessions, Durant got a steal, ran the floor, found Green at the top, and Draymond fired away, but Davis darted up from the paint to block his shot, forcing a loose ball, then a jump ball.
However, Draymond won the tip, only to have Curry give the momentum right back with a poor upcourt pass that was stolen by Solomon Hill and laid up by Tim Frazier, New Orleans’ backup point guard, uncontested.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr didn’t like what he saw and called timeout with 7:04 remaining, up 11-10.
Out of the timeout, Green got a layup, then later fed Durant for a backdoor play, but the pass was a little late and “KD” got blocked at the rim by Pelicans center Omer Asik.
But Asik threw the ball away, Steph hit Pachulia at the pinch post and, as the New Orleans defense sagged, got a push-shot to drop, the ball barely affecting the net.
Klay then hit a nice jumper on a dribble-stop-upfake from the left side, then after Moore missed a jumper over Andre Iguodala, Pachulia ran the floor and Draymond found him on a cut, forcing a timeout by Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry as the Warriors inched ahead, 19-12, with 4:19 to play.
Kerr inserted rookie Patrick McCaw after the timeout, but after Iguodala missed a touchdown layup on a full-court throw by Durant, Green threw an alley-oop to Durant that went about a full length of KD too high into the stands.
But Durant got going, with a layup on the left baseline fed by a pick-and-roll with Steph at the left arc…
Steph dishes to KD for the layup 💪 pic.twitter.com/HLWiIOh829
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) October 29, 2016
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…then KD drew foul shots down the right side, got a righty scoop and-one to drop, crossing over Davis and picking up the contact from Frazier in the restricted area:
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Klay got into the action coming off a curl for a swish, then after Langston Galloway airballed, Iguodala ran the break and fed Durant down the left side. A big step-and-a-half later, the KD rammed home two points with the right hand as Golden State stretched out to a 30-19 lead with 38 seconds to go:
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But Lance Stephenson struck back with a spinning drive, and-one, past Iguodala, only to get answered by Thompson with an impressive “hesi” drive down the right side, floating the ball in from the short right baseline with 4.8 seconds left.
Stephenson missed a jumper at the buzzer and the Warriors took a strong 32-22 lead into the second stanza.
2nd Quarter – KD Versus The Brow
Early in the second quarter, Thompson couldn’t stay hot as he missed a catch-and-shoot a yard past the left arc, and after David West hit free throws drawing a foul on an iso post up inside, Stephenson hit a dribble-and-pop over Durant from the left elbow.
Shaun Livingston forced a pass with no spacing inside to West, and Terrence Jones cleaned up a missed runner by Buddy Hield, prompting Kerr to call another timeout as the Warriors made another turnover-non-box-out sequence reminiscent of the season opener loss.
The Pelicans had cut the lead to 33-26 with 10:01 remaining.
Livingston missed a baseline turnaround out of the timeout, but eventually West got an inside bucket, only to get answered by a late-shotclock three by, of all people, power forward Dante Cunningham.
But Durant noticed the mismatch he had with Hield and went straight to the post, spun into the middle and drew an and-one as the fade-away dropped. KD hit the free throw to give the Warriors a 38-29 lead with 8:49 to play.
After Jones missed a point-blank layup, Durant brought the ball up and the Warriors added three more as McCaw swished a left-corner trey.
Later, Stephenson drew a phantom call in transition on Durant, Zaza got the ball inside on a switched pick-and-roll, but the Warriors fell asleep again and Cunningham scored on a backdoor cut, prompting another timeout by Kerr, a little more animated this time on the sideline as he discussed the missed defensive assignment.
Curry had come back in and, after the timeout, nearly threw the ball away twice in a row, with a pass just getting by a defender to hit Green at the top, then getting caught in the air with a late emergency pass to Draymond again.
Green gave a savvy pass right back to Steph on the right wing as the shotclock wound down, and Curry drilled the triple, pushing the Warriors back up to 46-34:
#StephGonnaSteph pic.twitter.com/mmvTVr4hwy
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) October 29, 2016
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But Pachulia missed this time inside on a near identical play to his previous bucket, Cunningham hit a three assisted by Davis on a cross-court pass that McCaw couldn’t close out quick enough on, and after Draymond got his own miss and screamed for an and-one that wasn’t called, Davis hit a triple on the left wing on an up-pass from Galloway down low.
Zaza threw the ball at Curry’s feet on a backdoor, and Davis got by a double-team from McCaw for yet another high-reaching runner, this time with the harm on Pachulia, and after a TV timeout, “The Brow” cut the Golden State lead all the way down to 48-42 with 5:15 to play.
A few possessions after the timeout, after Curry got whistled for a loose ball foul on the rebound of a Galloway missed three, Kerr put Thompson back in for the “Death Lineup” and it paid immediate dividends. KD posted up in the pinch, was immediately doubled, and Klay made a Triangle cut from the passer to the bucket and Durant fed him for the easy layup.
Cunningham couldn’t connect down low against the smaller Steph on a switch, and Durant threw a bullet outlet to Klay for a stop-and-pop jumper to give the Warriors 52-42 with 3:41 to play as Gentry called a timeout to break the momentum.
But out of the timeout, Curry inexplicably reached in with a “hand in the cookie jar” foul on a double-team of Davis versus Green in the deep left post, forcing Steph to the bench with three fouls as McCaw checked back in.
Both teams traded blows as a Thompson layup was matched by a Cunningham cutting dunk in transition, after he pinned Durant on the board on a McCaw steal.
But KD answered back with a jumper, then after Davis made a swooping, bat-like two-hand jam fed by Frazier, Durant came back again in traffic, past two defenders, for a righty scoop.
Moore missed a three, KD couldn’t hit an iso after winding the game clock down from 29 seconds, and Davis hit an impressive fading baseline jumper.
McCaw had turned his left ankle in the sequence, and the Warriors simply inbounded the ball with two seconds remaining without any advancement, and the Warriors took a 59-50 lead into halftime.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @izzymcfly)
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