This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Miami Heat.
The Warriors held a 48-46 lead at halftime.
Q3: Nothing Consistent
After the Heat hit a bucket to start the third quarter, Kevin Durant got a steal after a Stephen Curry turnover, by running back and deflecting a pass on the break by Goran Dragic, and Klay Thompson was the beneficiary at the other end with a splash.
Dion Waiters struck right back with a triple of his own, but Zaza Pachulia boarded a miss by Thompson and then fed Klay on his cut to the hole.
Again, the Heat returned the favor from beyond the arc as Luke Babbitt drained from the arc.
Hassan Whiteside continued his inside dominance on rebounds as he grabbed another o-reb and drew a hard fouled by Durant, who shoved him. The play was reviewed and changed to a Flagrant Foul One on KD:
[protected-iframe id=”ff12c306a35d762fcc8d0d323e73f54d-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F823711346453725184″ width=”360″ height=”240″ frameborder=”0″]Later, Curry found Draymond Green at the high post, who found a cutting Pachulia, then Draymond blocked Waiters, which led to a Durant stop-and-pop via Zaza screen…
[protected-iframe id=”a97277105f3622f0799fb4eeb1079b16-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F823712473521922048″ width=”360″ height=”240″ frameborder=”0″]…but Waiters used a non-called illegal pick by Whiteside to free up for a jumper.
Waiters stayed hot, Steph hit a three, but in transition and with numbers, Durant couldn’t nail it from beyond the arc and the spark lit by Curry died out.
KD scored over Whiteside impressively, Dragic responded, and Steph pulled up for two, prompting Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra to call timeout with 5:42 remaining, the Warriors up, 64-63.
Out of the timeout, Golden State strung something together as Curry drew free throws then Draymond got a steal that led to a KD finish, followed by Zaza drawing another foul on Whiteside, which gave the Warriors a 69-63 lead with 4:34 to play.
But after a timeout and a Patrick McCaw-Durant-JaVale McGee “tic-tac-toe” play, it was — take a wild guess — Waiters with another triple to halve the lead back to one possession at 71-68.
Wayne Ellington followed that up with a three after KD missed from deep, and after Durant missed a layup, Rodney McGruder threw a touchdown pass to Ellington and the Heat snatched the lead, 73-71, with 2:19 left as Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout.
After the timeout, Curry made a bad pass and Green a bad lob to McGee, but the damage was minimal as Steph rushed up the court on a miss for a nice lefty reverse going right-to-left on a two-for-one.
Alas, co-Warrior-killer James Johnson (along with Waiters, as it were) fed Willie Reed for a slam with 16 seconds left, and Draymond charged into Reed although Johnson had a ticky-tack bump a split-second before that, with 8 seconds remaining, and the Heat took a 77-73 lead into the final frame.
Q4: Comeback?
Ellington started the fourth quarter with a triple, but the Warriors struck back with a Green-to-Thompson catch-and-shoot facilitated by Pachulia’s off-ball screen, Pachulia went to the line later even though this trick shot didn’t count as an and-one…
[protected-iframe id=”1426192d4f066b8e1cac41b6ca5bec83-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F823714394366361600″ width=”360″ height=”240″ frameborder=”0″]…then McCaw calmly swished a three from the right wing.
Klay gave the Dubs a momentary lead at 81-80 after hitting two free throws with 9:45 to play, but Dragic drew an and-one going past McCaw and up-faking Draymond, although he missed the free throw.
Later, the Warriors played one of their worst four-minute stretches of the season.
After forcing Dragic to spin on the left arc and step on the sideline, Shaun Livingston gave the ball right back by throwing a baseline inbound to Pachulia, who wasn’t looking. The ball bounced off his shoulder for an easy unforced turnover to the Heat.
Livingston then managed to deflect a pass to Babbitt, but Babbitt got the ball back deep in the left wing on the scramble and hit the triple.
Green then drew a foul on Babbitt, but missed both free throws. On the second miss, Zaza and Luke got entangled, no initial foul was called, but the whistle blew on Pachulia’s swipe to the head, reviewed the play, and issued him a Flagrant One:
[protected-iframe id=”53a6a974a7154e80068de540db044058-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fgifdsports%2Fstatus%2F823721635823947776″ width=”360″ height=”240″ frameborder=”0″]Babbitt was also assessed a technical, but Curry missed the free throw while Luke made both of his and the Heat had the ball back, now up 92-84.
Dragic drew a foul on a drive against Livingston, and after making one of them, Kerr inserted the Death Lineup with Livingston instead of Andre Iguodala, with Golden State down, 93-84 with 6:43 to go.
Durant hit a jumper, but after Klay smothered an Ellington missed jumper, Livingston attacked and flipped the ball to Draymond, who found Whiteside in his face, so Green attempted an impossible behind-the-back left pass into the tar-pit that was filled with Heat defenders under the basket.
Yet, Dragic airballed as he tried to twist for his lefty jumper from the right baseline against Green, and Klay missed a three from the top on the catch. Spoelstra put an end to the sloppiness, calling timeout with 5:07 left.
Out of the timeout Waiters went to the line against Livingston, KD answered with a drive down the left side drawing throws, but after a Durant steal, Curry opted to go with a behind-the-back lefty pass on the break that his heel and bounced off for another incredibly careless turnover.
Waiter then took Thompson off the dribble from right to left for a stop-and-pop and Miami went up by ten, 98-88, with 3:19 remaining.
After Steph got an inside foul for another trip to the line, Kerr played “Hack-A-Hassan”, fouling Whiteside immediately.
The ploy worked as Whiteside missed both free throws, prompting Spoelstra to sub him out on the next possession, after Livingston got the board, then an offensive rebound, and Curry found Thompson for a straightaway three.
With 2:55 to play, the Warriors had the Heat lead down to 98-93.
KD did well to force Ellington into a tough trey attempt, but Klay’s attack into the paint was a charge as he left the ball for Green, who would’ve been fouled and gone to the line:
[protected-iframe id=”3be73091aa7bddd5d03e307bdc9bc9fe-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F823725933290868736″ width=”360″ height=”240″ frameborder=”0″]Instead, it was Miami ball with 2:26, up five.
Thompson made up for it by forcing Waiters into an airball, and Steph went strong right baseline to find Durant open on the left wing for a triple, officially turning the game into a nail-biter with 1:47 to go, Miami up just 98-96:
[protected-iframe id=”514b88d05a3678da5498b99a123cb7ca-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F823726748219023360″ width=”360″ height=”240″ frameborder=”0″]After a Spoelstra twenty-second timeout, Waiters forced a switch versus Draymond, and Dion did well to get another right-to-left dribble-and-pop for a three with 1:32 left:
[protected-iframe id=”a3c0bd62f527639f4cb5660f3c89a473-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F823726892943409152″ width=”360″ height=”240″ frameborder=”0″]KD missed a three from the left arc, Green got the o-reb, dished back to the top to Livingston, but his zip pass to the left wing to Steph went awry and out of bounds, with the automatic under-two-minute replay confirming Heat ball.
But Waiters missed on a drive, Livingston outlet to Draymond, and Green lobbed to Durant and, with 50.1 seconds remaining, the Warriors pulled to within one possession, 101-98.
Waiters missed a fading three over Green on the next possession, and the Warriors made him pay as Steph found Livingston in transition for a modest dunk, to pull to within 101-100 with just 21.4 seconds to play:
[protected-iframe id=”58b235eadb73ae0c6b1967993eaa4758-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F823727560601149440″ width=”360″ height=”240″ frameborder=”0″]Out of a timeout by Spoelstra, Steph and Klay trapped Ellington on the inbound by the sideline, forcing Spoelstra’s last timeout with 18.1 seconds to go.
On the inbound, this time by Ellington, the Warriors switched every screen to free up a Heat player, but Dragic zigged toward the hoop while Thompson guess wrong and zagged, and Draymond had to foul with 17.6 seconds left.
Dragic, however, missed the first free throw and Kerr called timeout to advance the ball with a chance to tie, down 102-100.
Livingston got the side inbound to Curry at the top, who found Durant on the right side, and KD up-faked, took a huge step down the right baseline and soared in for a two-hand smash to tie the game at 102-apiece with just twelve ticks remaining.
With no timeouts, Waiters got the made basket inbound, brought the ball up on Klay, went from his favorite right to left, pulled up again, and again hit the stop-and-pop from the top beyond the arc with 0.6 seconds to play:
[protected-iframe id=”e2d2f301ddb18312ae996f660a696f0e-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FESPNNBA%2Fstatus%2F823729974595219456″ width=”360″ height=”240″ frameborder=”0″]Kerr took a timeout, got the ball to Steph in the left corner, but his desperation shot was heavily contested and way off…
[protected-iframe id=”1da8d4c4391c4a8ce955d02a5005224d-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FFanSportsClips%2Fstatus%2F823730139640918016″ width=”360″ height=”240″ frameborder=”0″]…and Waiters was the hero, the “son-son”…
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_ncvqaAkCM&w=560&h=315]…as the Heat pulled off the upset, 105-102.
[twitter-follow screen_name=’poormanscommish’ show_count=’yes’]
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @riccardo_s)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
