ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the New Orleans Pelicans at the Golden State Warriors.
Q3 – Cheffin’ Again
Stephen Curry picked up where he left off from the first half with a three-pointer.
Klay Thompson followed suit and got a layup fed by Draymond Green:
Give and go. 👊 (@CSNAuthentic) pic.twitter.com/lqZllIE8zq
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) November 8, 2016
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Curry continued his wizardry and made a nice left baseline one-handed push shot over Anthony Davis after the Warriors were a little too unselfish with the ball, with Kevin Durant giving the ball up to Thompson, who gave the ball up to Green, who found Steph just before the shot clock expired.
But Durant went cold, and the Pelicans strung together buckets by Tim Frazier, Davis and E’Twaun Moore.
An “and-one” by Davis prompted Warriors head coach Steve Kerr to call timeout with 7:54 remaining and his lead cut down to 70-62, but Moore hit a three, Durant was short again on a jumper, Davis and Omer Asik drew ticky-tack fouls for free throws, then Davis made a spin on Green and willed the ball in.
Just like that, New Orleans stole the lead, 73-72, with 4:14 to play as Kerr called another timeout.
Curry came to the rescue, hitting a three on a pinball play with Draymond:
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“KD” added a driving dunk and, after Davis missed a three, Curry seemingly drew a foul on Davis, with no call:
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But Steph came back with a three anyways, from 27 feet, assisted by Andre Iguodala, and the Warriors inched ahead, 80-76.
Closing out the quarter, Frazier and Durant traded free throws, although KD missed one of his, then Ian Clark got beat up court by the speedy Frazier, only to recover from behind and knock the ball off Frazier for a turnover.
The Warriors had the ball with 34 seconds to go, and Durant ran pick-and-roll with Curry to force a switch.
KD attacked the right side, found Clark open up top, who swung the ball immediately to Steph on the left wing.
An upfake shook the defender, and Curry nailed the three-point side-step with 9.5 seconds left:
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He had one more opportunity as Frazier missed. Steph brought the ball up with Clark on his left and Durant headed to the paint, but facing Davis at halfcourt, couldn’t quite make up his mind on his three options, and got caught taking too much time trying to get past Davis on the bounce.
The pass to Clark was late, KD was left open under the hoop, and Curry was mad at himself as the buzzer sounded with the Warriors taking an 84-78 lead into the final frame.
Steph was up to 37 points at this point, on 10-for-13 from deep.
Q4 – Chef In The Record Books
Durant started the quarter with his fourth turnover of the game, a bad pass that led to a Langston Galloway runout layup. Galloway added a corner three after Buddy Hield’s catch-and-shoot from the left arc, while KD hit a jumper.
After a timeout, Thompson tried a three from the right side, missed, but David West tapped the rebound out and Iguodala found Durant for a lay-in.
But the Pelicans answered every call as Moore got a spinning fadeaway to drop over West, Klay made a lefty layup, curling around a screen and getting the pass from Durant, only to get countered by a Dante Cunningham trey, late in the shotclock.
With 7:29 remaining, the Warriors held a slim 94-91 lead.
Then Hield threw a lefty drive away to Thompson and KD ended the sequence with an attack down the right side, darting a pass to West, forcing Gentry to call another timeout to stem the tide.
Durant dishin' on @CSNAuthentic. pic.twitter.com/DxAsOfe4ai
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) November 8, 2016
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Out of the timeout, Curry, Clark and Cunningham all missed, Moore turned the ball over to Klay again, and Green backed in a smaller defender for a bully banker.
With 5:15 to go, Golden State’s lead was 98-91.
Davis lost the ball on yet another unforced New Orleans turnover, and Steph made a lefty sling pass to Draymond who then found Shaun Livingston on a cut down the left baseline for a dunk.
Again Gentry called timeout, but the Pelicans capitalized on successive misses by Thompson and Green, and after a Moore bucket, Draymond’s miss led to an outlet to Hield by Moore for an uncontested layup.
Suddenly the Pelicans were back in the game, down just 100-95, as Kerr called timeout with 3:47 to play.
But Chef Curry cooked up another recipe and hit a side-stepping three on the left wing, delivered by Iguodala…
How Steph Curry got his 11th three pointer last night
Breakdown coming up. pic.twitter.com/qqcGtUIq65— BBALLBREAKDOWN (@bballbreakdown) November 8, 2016
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…then another via Klay while even hesitating on the shot, after a Frazier bucket with 2:53 to go…
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After Hield missed a step-back, Draymond got the rebound and Steph hit another one on a pivot-and-catch from Green with 2:24 left to set a new NBA record of 13 three-pointers made in a game, surpassing himself, Donyell Marshall, and Kobe Bryant:
Lucky #13! #ThisIsWhyWePlay pic.twitter.com/9pDSk0qDNc
— NBA (@NBA) November 8, 2016
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Here were all 13 makes:
Watch all THIRTEEN of @StephenCurry30's Record-Breaking Threes vs. New Orleans! #NBAHistory #DubNation pic.twitter.com/qw4EdNBm3p
— NBA (@NBA) November 8, 2016
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Gentry called timeout as Curry’s minute-and-ten-second explosion gave the Dubs a 109-97 lead.
Out of the timeout, Davis hit a jumper, Steph finally missed one, but then he was first to the ball on a long rebound of Moore’s three-point attempt with 1:20 remaining.
Davis connected for three from up top, but Klay answered with one from the right corner, Davis hit one of two free throws on a foul by Iguodala, and Durant closed things out with a dunk down the lane.
A Frazier triple made the final score 116-106 as the Warriors (5-2) shook off the poor performance in Los Angeles two nights prior.
Curry led all scorers with 46 points on 13-for-17 from deep, Durant still managed to score 22 points, and Green collected a rebound-assist double-double with 12 boards and 11 assists.
Whether or not Thompson broke out of his slump remained up for debate as he tallied 24 points but on just 2-for-7 from downtown, to go along with 3 steals.
Davis led the Pelicans with a quiet 33 points and 13 rebounds, never quite stringing together a personal run like Curry did, while Moore chipped in 15 points, and Frazier collected an impressive 13 points and 10 assists.
Golden State (5-2) will face ex-teammates Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut in two nights as the struggling Dallas Mavericks (currently 1-5) come into town on the second night of a back-to-back (Lakers).
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @juniortonight)
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