Two nights after up-ending the Bulls at home, the Golden State Warriors (44-8) flew out to the “Grindhouse”, FedEx Forum, to face the Memphis Grizzlies (33-22).
Golden State looked to avoid losing their third straight game to the “Grizz”, but were without their top two enforcers, Zaza Pachulia (right shoulder strain) and David West (non-displaced fracture, left thumb).
The Grizzlies were without Chandler Parsons (rest).
Q1: Klay Day
The Warriors drew first blood as Klay Thompson went on a mini-binge, hitting a right-wing three on a sling pass from Draymond Green in the post, cross-court:
[protected-iframe id=”9e356ce19d2e6986f0b27c1a144da8d6-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F830225559569305600″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″] [protected-iframe id=”6dab1542df355fdb2589077f12346f86-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F830223918548058113″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]Thompson then got a side-stepping trey from the right side again, after Draymond blocked JaMychal Green’s drive.
Finally, after a miss from downtown, Klay once again hit from the right side to take a 9-2 lead, after Marc Gasol missed a three and Draymond pushed the ball up.
Later, a baseline inbound play from Stephen Curry got Thompson another bucket, and the Grizzlies’ head coach, David Fizdale, eventually took a timeout with 7:18 remaining, the Warriors up, 11-5.
Out of the timeout, Klay wasn’t done, hitting another triple thanks to a Draymond steal…
[protected-iframe id=”1b4a7631415f05080545182c88032af6-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FNBAcom%2Fstatus%2F830225996246827009″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]…but the Grizzlies powered inside, with JaMychal scoring despite Draymond blocking his shot, and Gasol getting free throws and hitting deep inside on a series of pump fakes against JaVale McGee.
With 4:28 to play, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr was troubled by how easily Gasol scored, and called timeout, still holding a 19-14 lead.
Out of the timeout, Curry pulled a three but missed his third perimeter shot in a row before finally hitting a pretty floater.
A couple possessions later, Steph hit a banker over Gasol, then a right-corner three with the harm…
[protected-iframe id=”67bea80f24444b7eb94f7546c5fc4f5b-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F830229286242000896″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]…, but after another Draymond steal, Curry threw the ball away on a reverse flip pass to Patrick McCaw waiting in the corner:
[protected-iframe id=”cdab745274b3e2a8b9850ad4fb7f7b15-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FBleacherReport%2Fstatus%2F830234440139841538″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]Kerr showed frustration with that bad pass on the bench, but the Warriors held a 29-22 cushion after the opening frame.
Q2: Andre Late Burst
Kerr put James McAdoo in to start the second stanza and that paid dividends immediately, as he kept a miss alive. Mike Conley saved McAdoo’s deflection in the corner to Andre Iguodala.
With Conley still lurking, Iguodala feigned a jumper, threw out to Draymond, and Green lasered the pass right back to Andre, who hit a triple.
McAdoo then sealed his defender inside and Iguodala fed him for two more, and after empty trip by the Grizzlies that resulted in Draymond’s fifth steal, Shaun Livingston pushed the ball and got it to “Mac” on the trail for a dunk, and just like that, the Warriors bursted ahead, 36-25, with 9:29 remaining as Fizdale took another timeout:
[protected-iframe id=”e15b103276839db8cab23815a50eee3a-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F830232141459922944″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]Out of the timeout, Zach Randolph started to assert himself, drawing two trips to the line, one on an offensive board.
McAdoo made another good play by drawing a charge on Toney Douglas, then Klay took a turn at taking advantage of the height differential, hitting a jumper over Douglas, but Randolph crashed the offensive glass once more and hit a tap-in as Douglas smoked a layup, and Kerr called timeout.
The Warriors held a 40-30 lead with 6:45 to go.
Ian Clark forced a turnover on Douglas…
[protected-iframe id=”2168628b07eaff740f72b59f87f2e265-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F830234208555577346″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]Iguodala continued his clutch play with a late triple up top on a feed out of a double-team in the post by Durant, and Andre hit a tough jumper after that.
But the Grizzlies started to slow the game down as Gasol drew foul shots against Livingston then McGee, and KD got a tech for walking by a ref and saying, “Good job.”
That was during a questionable call where Douglas drew three shots against Curry, and Memphis was back to within 47-39 after the stoppage of play.
But Steph bounded down the right side to feed Iguodala in the paint, who went with a two-hand chest pass bouncer to Draymond for a layup, then Green collected the Warriors’ sixth block on a miss inside by JaMychal:
[protected-iframe id=”e5dfa43ad4ea898b1087a3fc23d76f11-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F830237694919745536″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]Curry got called for another phantom foul on an and-one for Conley in the left corner, then Tony Allen muscled in a banker on the right baseline, fed by Gasol, and the Grizzlies had the Warriors’ lead cut down to 54-49, approaching one minute to go.
But Iguodala drew a foul on James Ennis in the right corner, then canned all three shots from the charity stripe.
Iguodala then stopped a Gasol drive out of bounds and, on the next inbound reset, Draymond picked Gasol clean way up top, led the break, and finished with a one-hand flush:
[protected-iframe id=”be097cc00fbe45bd352cc56c1a2b6192-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F830238747664932864″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″] [protected-iframe id=”d3a29da67658db0a4dfe89d14ff49f1a-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F830238987608539136″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]That gave Draymond his sixth steal of the night and 100 on the year, his fourth straight year having triple-digit steals.
Conley missed a triple in response, Curry caught the board in stride, and found Iguodala once again for a slam dunk over Conley, and Fizdale called another timeout with 22.9 seconds left, the Warriors up 61-49:
[protected-iframe id=”9f09c5b22402245f51df04bdd356ba68-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F830240261326245888″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″] [protected-iframe id=”441ae851510868801ff279a4b2bd471e-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F830239182903603201″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]Out of the timeout, the Grizzlies missed again, Draymond pushed the ball ahead, and Iguodala got fouled on a reverse layup try with 0.9 seconds remaining.
Andre hit one of two and the Warriors took a 62-49 lead into halftime.
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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @42amb)
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