This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Memphis Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies had a commanding 61-38 lead at halftime.
Q3: Buckets, But No Defense
The third stanza got off to an auspicious start as Andrew Harrison opened with a bucket, then Draymond Green got hacked with no call against Tony Allen, and Marc Gasol missed, only to get the ball tapped out by Green to Gasol past the arc, and the Grizzlies big man drilled a three.
Stephen Curry then drove, appeared to draw a grab from Jarell Martin, but again no call, and Martin went coast-to-coast for a slam dunk.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout as the Grizzlies moved ahead by thirty early on, 68-38.
Klay and Steph hit long twos after the timeout, but the Warriors couldn’t stop the Grizzlies.
Worse, the refs weren’t helping. JaMychal Green drew Draymond’s fourth personal foul on a questionable call, then after Harrison tripped Draymond for a foul, Draymond got tagged for a technical foul as he clapped, referee James Capers interpreting that as a personal shot at him.
Green came back at the other end to one-hand slam home Curry’s miss, though:
.@money23green follow 💪 pic.twitter.com/q6LlzW4WVq
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) December 11, 2016
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But that couldn’t spark Golden State, as Harrison drew an “and-one” on Steph on a reverse layup, Steph made a bad pass, and Gasol ended up hitting a patented baseline jumper over Draymond after Allen led the fast break and appeared to move his feet while passing to a teammate inside.
Later, after a long string of empty possessions which included a non-call on a grab when Curry attacked JaMychal and Martin swatted his layup away…
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…and ended when JaVale McGee finally made a bucket inside, Patrick McCaw drove past Gasol, Gasol hacked and a slap was heard, and there was again no call, leading to a Martin dunk at the other end.
Curry hit a three from KD which made it 85-65 with 1:30 to play, but then got called for a bad screen and airballed the next time down after that on a two-for-one with 14.3 seconds left:
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Draymond then got a steal, but threw a bullet pass ahead into the hands of Martin, leading to an uncontested dunk by Allen on the left baseline with the Warriors in scramble mode.
The Grizzlies took an 87-65 lead into the final frame.
Q4: Nothing Doing In Mop-Up Work
Kerr inserted rookie Damian Jones to start the fourth, and he did well to get up off the floor to disrupt an Allen lefty drive, but Durant lost the ball at the other end trying to go coast-to-coast and Troy Daniels pulled up in transition to get a three from the right arc to trickle in.
While Durant couldn’t get anything to drop, Zach Randolph hit a triple and at a timeout with 10:06 remaining, the Grizzlies held their lead at 93-65.
Shaun Livingston hit a jumper, McCaw and David West hit threes and free throws on a clear-path foul, but Randolph scored on Jones inside, Livingston’s pass inside to Jones was botched, and Memphis held steady at 99-78.
The Warriors got as close as 18 points as West hit a cross-court catch-and-shoot trey, but then turned the ball over, Randolph got an offensive rebound put-back off an airball…
Warriors lost by 21 to this pic.twitter.com/MuLDbMqT6l
— kyle wagner (@kylenw) December 11, 2016
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…Allen hit a jumper and got a lay-in on a cut fed by Randolph, and Golden State couldn’t get the lead down from the twenty range.
Golden State ended with Clark, McCaw, James McAdoo, Jones, and Varejao.
Martin added a three to his over-achieving performance for 13 points off the bench, Clark got an “and-one” drive to close things out before the buzzer, and the Grizzlies won their sixth straight game, 110-89.
The Warriors (20-4) now head to Minneapolis to face the T’Wolves in less than 24 hours.
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