One night after defeating the Rockets in Houston, the Golden State Warriors (60-14) flew nearby to close out a back-to-back and face the San Antonio Spurs (57-16).
The Warriors were without Kevon Looney, Kevin Durant (left knee MCL sprain, left tibial bone bruise), and Damian Jones (D-League assignment).
Q1: Nightmare Start
The Spurs started off hot, a nightmare for the Warriors in turn, as Kawhi Leonard drove into the lane, spun, and faded for two, Danny Green hit a three after Zaza Pachulia made a bad entry pass to a cutting Draymond Green.
Draymond was then called for a weak-side illegal screen, holding Leonard, trying to free up Klay Thompson in the right corner.
Kawhi then missed, the Spurs got an offensive rebound, Tony Parker missed, San Antonio got another board, and Danny Green made the Warriors pay again, giving the Spurs a 10-0 lead as Golden State head coach Steve Kerr called timeout with 9:26 remaining.
Out of the timeout, Stephen Curry missed from the top, Leonard drove, missed, but Draymond threw the rebound away to Kawhi, who missed again, and Matt Barnes got stripped of that rebound, but Danny threw the ball away as well, to Curry.
The Warriors couldn’t come up with a bucket again, and LaMarcus Aldridge ended up hitting a baseline catch-and-shoot jumper.
Draymond had a three from the top roll in and out, then Danny Green hit another three from the right corner to make it 15-0, Spurs.
Steph finally broke the mega-drought with a step-back in Kawhi’s face from the left arc.
But the downhill slide continued as JaVale McGee missed a point-blank uncontested dunk on a nice lead by Curry…
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Draymond drove to force the action, found Andre Iguodala, but Iguodala’s layup went too hard in traffic, and Aldridge ended up hitting a fade-away that trickle in off the front rim, and Kerr burned another timeout as the Spurs pushed ahead to 23-3.
Out of the timeout, Curry drove on Dewayne Dedmon and drew free throws, Patty Mills buried a triple after Kawhi stole a lob from Draymond to McGee, and after Draymond, Steph, and JaVale went tic-tac-toe for a basket, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich called a momentum-killing timeout with a 26-7 lead with 3:53 to play.
Aldridge hit a corner triple out of the ATO, Curry answered by drawing three free throws on Mills, making them all, but Kawhi came back with an and-one baseline move on McGee at the rim, but missed the bonus throw.
Iguodala hit a three, Pau Gasol continued the Spurs dominance on the boards with a tip-in of a Leonard missed scoop, but Andre came back with a jumper in Kawhi’s grille.
Mills made a bad lead pass and, after David West missed, then forced a tough contested step-back triple by Kawhi, Iguodala brought the ball up, went behind-the-back on a dribble, and fired on a stop-and-pop from the right wing at the buzzer, giving the Warriors a respectable 33-17 deficit after the first period of play:
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Starting the second stanza, Barnes hit a three over David Lee from the left wing, but Lee got a tip-in at the other end.
Then Klay hit a tough mid-ranger over Manu Ginobili…
[protected-iframe id=”491ede786a2f9ccf56e7cad35343614b-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FNBA%2Fstatus%2F847271673623691264″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]…Ian Clark did well to close out on a Mills missed trey, but then threw the ball away trying to force the action.
Mills went on the break, found Kyle Anderson, who found Gasol at the rim.
West then powered the ball inside past Danny Green, Aldridge missed, and West made Lee pay for double-teaming him by finding Barnes on the opposite wing, who then found Clark on the swing pass, resulting in a splash:
[protected-iframe id=”d3f64a13fd61c2d7b439e0015ce35866-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F847271440592154624″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]Popovich called timeout as the Warriors inched closer, 37-27, with 8:40 to go.
Anderson stepped on the baseline on the ATO, but Clark missed a floater and Parker found Danny Green once more for three on the trail.
Draymond this time got the entry pass inside from West and against Danny Green, then bullied home a bucket, but West committed a defensive three-second violation, Clark missed a floater, and Leonard hit another mid-range jumper, prompting Kerr to call timeout as the Spurs went up, 43-29, with 6:39 left.
Out of the timeout, Dedmon had a brain fart and committed a defensive three-second violation, Thompson nailing the technical, then Klay got the catch and drilled a trey:
[protected-iframe id=”6d69b4c5571b2bf5fc6980f25be4b647-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F847274618167668736″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]After Draymond drew a forearm push off on Aldridge, Shaun Livingston faded and swished and drew an and-one foul on Parker, and suddenly the Warriors were within striking range, down just 43-35 with 5:52 remaining.
Danny Green finagled another tip-in of a missed Aldridge spin move, but Klay got a jumper after Dedmon swatted a Curry reverse layup. Pachulia was smart enough to throw the ball up before a shot clock violation, and Draymond got the rebound and got fouled, allowing for a Thompson catch-and-shoot to go down on the next inbound.
Leonard then got caught traveling on an extra hop against Klay, and Draymond posted up on Kawhi, found Zaza at the last moment, and Pachulia threw the ball out to the wing, knowing Iguodala was there waiting.
Andre splashed, and the Warriors were now down just 45-41 with 4:37 to play.
Livingston made a great close-out to force a Parker miss, Steph pushed the ball, up-faked from the arc to draw three Spurs, and dished to Zaza wide open for the easy put-in:
[protected-iframe id=”8a33c2ea14ac52b27e14619248939024-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fdkurtenbach%2Fstatus%2F847275268217516036″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]On the next Spurs possession, Draymond tapped out a miss to Kawhi near halfcourt, Leonard attacked with the shot clock winding down, and a bounce pass to Aldridge got disrupted by three converging Warriors, forcing a shotclock violation.
Livingston ended up hitting another jumper, this time over Mills, and the game was, amazingly, tied at 45-45 with just 3:28 to go, but Popovich refused to call a timeout:
[protected-iframe id=”1b012902ec72719222950b20ab553410-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F847275480852058113″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]But Gasol answered with a catch-and-shoot trey, shooting over 50% for the year,
Steph couldn’t answer on a pull-up in-transition from the top, and Gasol managed to get post-up position on Livingston, drawing and making two free throws.
Later, Curry got a bucket on a cut, assisted by Pachulia, but Ginobili trickled in a three:
[protected-iframe id=”f52b7da11ce029e07980b719a468ff76-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F847277398286454786″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]Klay came back with a three of his own in transition from the right arc, pulling the Warriors back to within 55-50 with just 1:09 left.
Ginobili dribbled off his foot out of bounds, then Steph dissected the left arc on a switch by Gasol, zooming past Manu on the “hesi”, for a righty scoop down the left side.
But Mills drew a foul in the penalty on Curry, Steph answered with a corner turn on Ginobili, getting hammered by Manu at the rim for free throws.
On the last sequence, Iguodala tapped the ball away from Kawhi, but Draymond passed up an open layup with Andre on the attack to pass away to Klay on the right wing, but Thompson missed the wide-open triple and the Spurs took a slim 57-54 lead into halftime.
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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram via @injurylawfirm)
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