HALFTIME RECAP WITH HIGHLIGHTS: Warriors’ Bench Creates Separation, Stars Pile On To Lead OKC Thunder, 73-50

One night after defeating the Grizzlies on the road, the Golden State Warriors (45-8) took a 90-minute flight to OKC to face the Oklahoma City Thunder (31-23).

The Warriors were once again without Zaza Pachulia (right shoulder strain) and David West (non-displaced fracture, left thumb).

The Thunder were without Enes Kanter (broken right forearm).

It was Kevin Durant’s first time back to OKC since his free agency departure.

Q1: JaVale!

Durant hit his first attempt, a curl jumper off a screen sandwiched between buckets from Steven Adams and Donatas Sabonis:

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But Durant missed his next three shots as the Thunder used the adrenaline to take an 11-6 early lead with the wealth spread around their starting five.

Russell Westbrook got an “iso” on KD, but Adams set a pick and finished a nifty floater on the catch, and Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were cold from distance, but Curry found JaVale McGee with a lefty sling pass leading to a dunk on the roll:

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Victor Oladipo responded with an uncontested backdoor two-hand jam, and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr didn’t like what he saw and called timeout, the Thunder taking a 13-8 lead with 7:33 remaining.

McGee buoyed the Warriors out of the timeout, with a one-hand put-back slam of a missed KD fade-away on Sabonis, plus a jump hook off another big-stepping drive by Durant, this time also drawing a foul:

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With 5:13 to play, McGee missed the free throw, but the Warriors were only down, 17-14, then Curry made a pretty layup against Andre Roberson in transition:

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Durant would tally an airball and two more bricks, the second miss against Westbrook and the third one an unsuccessful attempt at drawing a whistle in an iso with Adams up top.

But Westbrook also bricked on a tight contest from Durant…

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…then threw a bad pass into Ian Clark’s hands, and the fast break resulted in an Andre Iguodala dunk, pulling the Warriors to within 22-20 with 2:38 to play.

Out of the timeout, Kevon Looney came in and hit a bucket inside on the catch, then Andre Iguodala hit an open triple assisted by Steph, that gave the Warriors a 25-22 lead with 1:22 to go.

Iguodala added a two-hand dunk via Draymond Green…

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…Curry finally hit from distance, then took a charge on Cameron Payne that could’ve easily been an and-one for Payne, and Golden State snatched the lead after one, 30-24.

Q2: Bench Pours It On

The Thunder committed a defensive three-second violation to start the second stanza, Klay hit the technical, then Shaun Livingston hit a jumper, fed Green at the rim, and found James McAdoo for a dunk in transition after McAdoo denied a drive by Payne.

The Warriors’ lead ballooned to 37-26 as OKC head coach Billy Donovan took a timeout.

Livingston continued to pour it on, though, as he hit a turnaround jumper and got slapped on the wrist for an “and-one”, stole a bad pass by Oladipo which led to Draymond finding Thompson for a trey…

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…and buried another spinning turnaround “J” from the high post.

Durant returned with nearly seven minutes left and promptly hit a triple, then got a righty one-hand put-back tap of a missed Klay triple.

After Westbrook got hit in the face and scored for an “and-one”, Steph hit a triple from the right arc on a dish from KD on the break…

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…and Donovan had to call another timeout as the Warriors’ lead stretched out to 55-37.

Later, Golden State went “tic-tac-toe” with Curry to Clark to another slam by JaVale…

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…Steph used a screen to get him downhill against Adams on the run, only to step back on him for a clean jumper from the left elbow, and KD added free throws and a jumper as the Warriors continued to close their grip on the game, 63-41.

But Kerr called timeout as Westbrook hit a “J” and Adams tapped in a miss by Anthony Morrow, with 2:16 remaining and still a comfortable 63-45 lead.

Out of the timeout, Steph ran pick-and-roll and dished to a wide-open Thompson on the left arc, who had time to size up the crosshairs before drilling the shot.

Later, Durant made an errant pass to McGee, but JaVale did a splendid job of reaching down and tapping the loose ball back to KD, who then fed him back for yet another jam.

Curry added a triple assisted by Iguodala after rebounding a miss with thirty seconds to go, and Andre Roberson shanked a left-corner triple, leading to Iguodala outletting to Durant for an uncontested one-hand smash with just 4 seconds left:

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With that, the Warriors took a commanding 73-50 lead into halftime.

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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @nathanthompsonfox23)