MODA CENTER, PORTLAND, OR — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Warriors held a 59-53 lead at halftime.
3rd Quarter – Cheffin’
The Warriors started to pull away early in the third frame, although the Blazers struck first emphatically with a Mason Plumlee slam dunk down the lane, fed by Damian Lillard.
But Klay Thompson got a dribble-and-pop to trickle in, Zaza Pachulia received an inside bounce pass and waiting for Plumlee to fly by before converting the layup, and after two straight misses by Maurice Harkless, Stephen Curry went with a behind-the-back change of direction in transition at half-court, then pulled up from the deep left arc in front of Al-Farouq Aminu and buried a triple to push Golden State ahead, 66-57, with 9:31 remaining:
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Right after that, Draymond Green stole the ball away from C.J. McCollum on a catch of a pass from Lillard inside the paint, and Green outlet to Kevin Durant, who went backboard, only to have the ball swatted by Plumlee.
But Plumlee had tracked down the ball off the board and the refs whistled a goaltending. Lillard did his best to stem the Warriors’ tide, going baseline off the window past Klay Thompson and the helping Pachulia, but Curry struck again, this time getting a backdoor dish from Pachulia…
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…then receiving the ball at the right wing from Draymond at the top, taking just one dribble past Zaza running interference, and firing and connecting from distance:
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Lillard answered with a three-point and-one call against Thompson, with Klay vehemently protesting as replays showed a phantom foul, his left arm coming near Lillard’s left on the shot, but nevertheless, the officials confirmed via replay that “Dame” was beyond the arc on the attempt, and he hit the free throw and brought the Blazers back to 71-62 with 8:32 to play.
However, once again, Portland couldn’t stop Golden State’s momentum, and Kevin Durant scored another bucket.
Shortly thereafter, Klay picked up his fourth personal foul on an attack by Lillard, but the hot-shooting Ian Clark (16 points at the half) subbed Thompson out and promptly left a drop-off pass at the top for Steph and Curry canned another three to put the Warriors up, 76-63, forcing Blazers head coach Terry Stotts to call timeout with 7:28 to go:
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Proving he was human, Curry airballed a pull-up heat-check triple over Plumlee after Aminu missed a three, but made up for it taking a charge on Aminu as Aminu pummeled him trying to get position. Still, McCollum ended the sequence with a trey.
Durant then lost the ball, Harkless led the break, and McCollum hit another from beyond the arc, prompting Warriors head coach Steve Kerr to call a timeout with 5:45 left and Golden State’s lead trimmed to 76-69.
After the timeout, the Warriors blitzed the Blazers for a 15-2 run, started with a layup by Clark assisted by Andre Iguodala, then an Iguodala miss, putback by Durant:
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Green then blocked a layup by McCollum, Lillard and Durant traded missed threes, and the long rebound of a miss by Blazers center Ed Davis was corralled in stride by Iguodala, who was then fouled as Andre manufactured a three-point attempt.
Once again, the refs reviewed the play and awarded Iguodala three foul shots. He hit two of them as the Warriors went up, 82-69.
Evan Turner finally broke Portland’s drought with a bucket, but Clark once again found Curry via offensive rebound, this time on the right wing for three more…
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…then Clark got fouled on a catch-and-shoot and hit both free throws, Steph blocked Davis down low, Noah Vonleh forced up a shot against great defense by Iguodala, and with David West outletting to Draymond, Iguodala ended another sequence with a layup:
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Stotts called another timeout as that push gave the Warriors a 20-point bulge at 91-71.
But that didn’t stop The Chef as Curry kept cooking, getting an acrobatic reverse “and-one” layup against Davis, going right baseline to left, off the window, to push the Golden State cushion out to 97-72:
Oh, Steph! (@CSNAuthentic) pic.twitter.com/zYbRxe27U3
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) November 2, 2016
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Then Steph hit another three to go up 100-72…
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…and a Turner free throw capped the quarter with a Warriors lead of 100-73, Curry leading the way with 28 points, 23 in the quarter, on 10-for-21 field, 5-for-10 from beyond the arc.
4th Quarter – Margin To Wide For Blazers To Make A Dent
In the final frame, David West kept the train rolling with a jumper and a rebound, although he threw another outlet away to Aminu, but Durant eventually ended the sequence with a block of Lillard’s penetration to the rim, and taking the ball nearly 94 feet for the coast-to-coast “and-one” off left board.
That made it 107-73, and gave Kerr the opportunity to bring in rarely used James McAdoo, who promptly scored at the rim on a nice drive-and-feed from Thompson, after Iguodala swished a triple from the top.
By the 8:00 mark, Golden State held a dominating 114-81 lead.
Kevon Looney checked in with 7:35 remaining, Clark added a layup to his career night, but Klay clanked his sixth missed trey of the game, after third-string shooter Jake Layman drained two of them, subbing in behind both McCollum and Allen Crabbe for garbage time.
After that, Thompson finally swished a jumper from the right side to make it 119-87, but then he missed his seventh straight try from deep.
Before leaving the game, Klay left this lob for JaVale McGee, who swapped back-and-forth with McAdoo during garbage time:
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McGee also got a chance to feed McAdoo:
JaVale McGee threads the needle to James McAdoo (source: https://t.co/MeUbYAueJt) #NBA #JamesMichaelMcAdoo #JaValeMcGee pic.twitter.com/oaBNIDVhSV
— Heatdex (@heatdex) November 3, 2016
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But then also had trouble coordinating with McAdoo on a dribble hand-off, when Looney was in as the power forward and “Mac” as a small forward:
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Layman would make three more treys to close out the game, and the Warriors eventually won by a final score of 127-104.
Lillard led all scorers with 31 points, but was a -29 in the process.
Meanwhile, the Warriors got 36 assists on 50 made field goals, outrebounded the Blazers by a comfortable 45-32 margin, and committed a modest 16 turnovers compared to Portland’s 16. It was the first game this season in four tries that Golden State led an opponent in rebounding.
In addition to Curry’s 28, Durant added 20 points on another efficient 9-for-15 shooting, to go along with 5 rebounds and 4 steals. But Clark was the “Robin” tonight to Steph’s “Batman”, tallying 22 points on 8-for-8 field, 3-for-3 from both the arc and the free throw line. It was the first time in franchise history that a Warriors player went as much as eight field goals without a miss, since the legendary Chris Mullin did so in 1996.
Green was brilliant on defense and racked up 8 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks, while Iguodala collected 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists.
However, Thompson remained in a slump, scoring 14 points but on just 6-for-17 field and those 7 misses from deep. He did grab 5 rebounds and dished out 4 assists, though.
The Warriors (3-1) head back home to face an emotional matchup against KD’s former team, the OKC Thunder, in two nights at Oracle.
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