STAPLES CENTER, LOS ANGELES, CA — Two nights after walloping the Los Angeles Lakers (8-8) by forty points, the Golden State Warriors (13-2) traded venues and were at Staples Center for a quirky scheduled rematch that sandwiched the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Warriors were cold coming out of the gate, as Stephen Curry missed a triple and Brandon Ingram came over a screen with a long arm and got a rare swat of a Kevin Durant jumper, then Klay Thompson also missed from distance.
Ingram missed a left corner three, but Luol Deng got the offensive board, and dished back out to Jose Calderon for a triple.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr didn’t like what he saw and called a timeout with 10:30 remaining as the Lakers bursted out to an early 5-0 lead.
Out of the timeout, Timofey Mozgov helped Golden State get on the board with a defensive three-second call, but made up for it with two straight buckets.
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But Durant hit a dribble-and-pop, then shoveled a pass to Zaza Pachulia cutting, who shoveled it to Draymond Green at the rim for an easy two.
Ingram got past “KD” nicely, but in transition, Durant got him back with an upfake and got body slammed by Mozgov, to the line, where Durant again missed one of his free throws.
However, Durant came back with a tic-tac-toe slam from Pachulia:
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Green then moved his feet against Ingram, Thompson came over to help on the sideline, and Ingram coughed the ball up out of bounds.
The Warriors capitalized as KD hit Steph in the left corner as Klay set a pick over there just to make sure Curry got extra daylight. Steph, who had bricked a three short on a previous trip, rattled three points home.
Jordan Clarkson tried to answer back but missed a triple from the corner, Zaza got the board out to Durant, who pulled up and banged in a triple as well.
Lakers head coach Luke Walton sensed a potential blood-letting and called timeout with 5:08 to play, Golden State up, 16-12.
Out of the timeout, Kerr brought in Andre Iguodala and JaVale McGee as a tandem to replace Durant and Pachulia, then Draymond traded a turnover for a steal, leading to a touchdown pass from Curry to Thompson for a one-handed slam:
Dray steals, Klay dunks. Watch it all now on @CSNAuthentic! pic.twitter.com/dgRUJ3lnDN
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) November 26, 2016
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After Marcelo Huertas bad pass into Iguodala’s hands, Andre brought the ball up and stealthily left a drop pass for Green to catch up to and convert for the layup plus the harm from Larry Nance, Jr.…
.@Money23Green + 1! pic.twitter.com/KrsqLiqq5I
— NBA TV (@NBATV) November 26, 2016
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…but Draymond once again missed the free throw.
McGee got a nice block of Tariq Black’s attack, but Nance got the putback, then Curry struck back for three more on a pick-and-roll up top with Draymond.
Teams traded both empty possessions and buckets, when finally Ian Clark got open in the right corner and the Warriors went “tic-tac-toe” as Steph found KD from left-to-right on the perimeter and Durant made the extra swing pass.
With 1:04 to go, that gave Golden State a 26-20 lead.
Black couldn’t hit from the right baseline, Iguodala boarded, outlet to Curry, when then later found Andre on the left baseline via righty sling pass and that resulted in a one-handed jam:
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Walton called a twenty-second timeout with 44.1 seconds left as the Warriors took a 28-20 lead.
David West hit a catch-and-shoot jumper with three seconds remaining, Lou Williams couldn’t answer with a coast-to-coast layup attempt at the buzzer, and the Warriors took a 30-20 lead into the second stanza.
Q2: ‘Niffehc (Cheffin’ Backwards)
Durant hit a right-wing triple to answer a Nance dunk to start the second quarter, then West got poked in the eye and purposely fouled to allow Kerr to bring in Kevon Looney as his sub.
Iguodala eventually got iso’ed on the left side with Black and pulled up for a jumper.
After both teams traded turnovers, Shaun Livingston drilled his favorite right baseline running jumper and Walton called timeout as the Warriors’ lead stretched out to 37-23 with 9:47 to play.
Later, KD curled and cut down the lane for an “and-one”, assisted by Thompson, and Golden State had its largest lead at 40-25 with 9:03 to go.
Patrick McCaw got to start the quarter and missed a three, but made amends as he calmly reloaded later and swished when Durant found himself iso’ed up top against the smaller Clarkson.
But the Warriors went cold as Green and Curry missed, and Williams bolted down the right side after three straight sequences of free throws for the Lakers, and Kerr called timeout as the Golden State got trimmed to 43-34 with 5:50 to play.
Walton put Thomas Robinson in and he immediately impacted the game, blocking Pachulia’s shot, then going reverse layup on a feed by Mozgov, past McCaw.
Zaza couldn’t hit again from the right elbow and Clarkson drained a triple over Ian Clark, drawing the Lakers to within 43-39, but a touchdown pass from Steph to Draymond drew a foul on Robinson.
Curry got a nice steal but butchered the uncontested dunk attempt…
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…then Mozgov upfaked past Green on the left baseline and got hacked by Pachulia on the help, his third personal, and with 3:35 remaining and after a timeout by Kerr, Los Angeles was back in business, down just 44-41.
Out of the timeout, the Warriors ran a blistering, cutting play that had Curry find Green from left to right, then back to Iguodala for a zinger dunk.
Clarkson missed a three and Black the putback, and the Warriors were off to the races again as Iguodala left a back pass for a trailing Klay for a triple.
That put the Warriors back up, 49-41, with 3:00 to go.
Mozgov hit a catch-and-shoot jumper assisted by Luol Deng, but KD answered with a long two-pointer that splashed through on a dart from Curry.
After a TV timeout, Steph inexplicably got a three blocked at that cursed right arc, this time by Calderon, but Deng passed the ball off Robinson’s leg.
However, Curry threw an interception to Clarkson, only to have Robinson get swatted by KD after dribbling past Draymond:
KD with the block! 🖐 pic.twitter.com/1kQYAfPft5
— NBA TV (@NBATV) November 26, 2016
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With 16 seconds left, the Warriors had the ball, but Thompson couldn’t get a baseline stop-and-pop to go, and Golden State took a rather ugly 53-43 lead into halftime.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @remib_jo)
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