ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Boston Celtics at the Golden State Warriors.
The Celtics held a 45-43 lead at halftime.
3rd Quarter – Late Steph Flurry
The Warriors got the second half off on the right foot as Stephen Curry hit two straight triples, both from the left side:
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Celtics head coach Brad Stevens took a quick timeout with 10:57 remaining as Golden State took a 49-45 lead.
Out of the timeout, Isaiah Thomas scored six straight points for Boston, but Klay Thompson came back with seven straight of his own.
The third bucket was a triple, but Thomas came right back again with a layup down the left side. Klay got swatted by Avery Bradley, and Thomas got fouled on a near-identical drive in transition, although he missed both free throws.
Curry connected with Andrew Bogut on an alley-oop, but Thomas answered yet again, this time with a three from the top.
Draymond Green then committed the Warriors’ 14th turnover, as Evan Turner stole the pass, led the fast break, and fed Thomas for another layup. Golden State head coach Steve Kerr called a timeout as the Celtics took a 60-58 lead with 6:51 to play.
Bogut picked up his fourth foul on what was called a bad screen, although Bradley hit him in the chest, forcing Bogut to the locker room. On the next sequence, Amir Johnson got tripped up by Thomas dribbling the ball, but Green was called for the phantom foul.
Curry hit a three from the top with 4:44 to go, but later lost his dribble and Thomas made him pay again with a quick layup on the other end.
Leandro Barbosa came in and buoyed the Warriors momentarily with a dribble-and-pop jumper past Thomas, then a triple from the right elbow.
With #Roaracle on its feet, Jared Sullinger stepped up and swished a catch-and-shoot left-wing triple.
Steph came back with an attacked, went backboard too hard, but Barnes got the offensive rebound and dished back to Curry for three from beyond the arc.
But Thomas answered again with a feed to Johnson, then Curry duped Bradley into three shots from beyond the arc, pulling the Warriors to 73-72 with 2:19 to go.
Marcus Smart got a hustle tip-in of a Bradley miss, then Curry struck again from the deep top over Bradley:
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This time, the Celtic answering the call was Kelly Olynyk with a catch and shoot from the right arc, and the Celtics showed on the pck-and-roll right after halfcourt against Steph’s dribble, so he attacked and found Anderson Varejao under the hoop, who got fouled. Varejao made one of two.
Shaun Livingston then came in and flicked the ball back to Steph for a fly-by three of Smart, to give the Warriors a 79-78 lead with 1:05 remaining, Curry’s sixth triple on as many tries:
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But Olynyk was fouled and made both, Curry got stripped from behind on a drive, and Bradley drew a foul on Varejao at the rim, canning both throws, to give the Celtics an 82-79 lead at the end of three.
4th Quarter – Too Many Heroics Needed
The Celtics pushed their lead to 93-83, even as Barnes and Livingston hit jumpers and Barbosa drilled another triple, as Jerebko dunked out of a baseline out-of-bounds play from Stevens, Turner got a behind-the-back crossover pull-up, and Smart went past an iso’ed Marreese Speights for a layup.
Smart added a buzzer-beating triple to go up by ten with 8:35 to play, Speights answered with a two-handed dunk down the lane…
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…but Turner got another jumper pull-up, and after another Barbosa trey fed by a Green attack in the lane..
Stevens called timeout as the Celtics held a 95-88 lead with 6:18 left.
Green got an and-one, but Sullinger missed and tipped in his own rebound to take a 99-91 lead for Boston.
Draymond came back with a triple up top on a dish by Curry, then Brandon Rush blocked a Turner fadeaway, missed a corner three, but Green got the putback on the other side of the board to bring the Warriors to within three, 99-96, with 3:55 remaining.
Barbosa got a steal, but Rush couldn’t hold onto the catch on the ensuing 4-on-1 fastbreak, and Thomas scored on the other way back with an easy layup.
With 3:14 to play, Kerr called another timeout with the Celtics up, 101-96.
It didn’t seem like the Warriors’ night as Green made an extra pass to Curry, who upfaked from beyond the arc, only to miss a running, fading banker. After nice defense by Klay on Thomas, Thompson missed a three in-and-out from the left wing, and Turner iso’ed Livingston on the right baseline and made another jumper.
Klay got a catch-and-swish from the right wing, though, and the Warriors were within 103-99 with 1:58 left.
Draymond played good back-in defense against Sullinger, and Steph made a nice up-and-under layup on the other end to bring the Warriors to within 103-101 with 1:29 remaining as Stevens called timeout:
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With 1:16 to play, Turner made another catch and shoot jumper, Curry missed a fading right-corner three, but Barnes got the board and Green fed Livingston cutting and got blocked by Turner at the rim, but it was called a foul and Livingston hit both to make it 105-103, Boston, with 46.9 ticks left.
Out of the timeout, Green made a brilliant steal of Johnson, calling timeout in the process, but then lost the ball after a timeout on the other end, unable to make a clean catch from Steph, and with 23.1 seconds remaining, the Warriors had to either get a steal or foul.
Turner got the ball, crossed halfcourt, Curry and Livingston trapped, but the whistle was on Livingston, and Turner drained both throws with 18.1 seconds.
With 10.2 to play, Barnes made a triple from the corner from Steph…
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…but Golden State was running out of time and had to foul again as the Celtics called another timeout to bring the ball to halfcourt.
On the side out, Curry switched onto a bigger man posting in the paint, but the Celtics were looking to get the ball into Thomas’ hands. Steph took a shot at jumping the lane, but barely missed, and as Thomas cut away to get free from his two Warrior defenders, he got by Curry for a layup with 8.3 seconds to play, up 109-106.
On the ensuing play, Steph came around a curl and Draymond fed him, but with six seconds to go, he upfaked, took a dribble to the right, and the shot went in and out.
The rebound caromed to Barnes inside the arc, and he took a huge step to beyond the three-point line, launched, but was way off target.
The buzzer sounded and Boston had ended Golden State’s 54-game winning streak at home.
The Warriors (68-8) will face the Blazers at home in two nights.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @goodmanship)
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