This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Warriors held a 65-55 lead heading into the third period.
Q3: Late Mac Hustle
Stephen Curry got the Warriors off on the right foot as he hit a jumper, then a step-back triple to take a 70-57 lead.
Later, Kevin Durant swung the ball to Patrick McCaw as Ray Felton crumpled to the floor from a JaVale McGee screen and McGee got an alley-oop as the Clippers played 4-on-5.
The referees reviewed the play at the timeout called to look at Felton, who was okay, and deemed the play no foul as JaVale had set a normal pick.
McGee added a bucket…
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After a nice swat by JaVale…
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That brought the Clippers back from a 15-point deficit to 79-69, but Klay answered with a cut, a catch, a pivot, and a bucket over Rivers who was draped all over him.
Ray Felton went short on a jumper, and Steph came back with a hesi with the left hand, then hit the scoop in the lane as Felton and Griffin converged. Curry earned the foul and hit the free throw to go back up by fifteen with 6:07 remaining.
But Griffin wouldn’t go away and he pulled up for a line-drive jumper, then missed a finger roll and got the put-back and-one again, this time with Klay helping.
With 5:37 to play, the Warriors held an 84-74 lead as head coach Steve Kerr took a timeout.
Later, Andre Iguodala hit a three, but DeAndre Jordan got a nice block of a Durant attack.
Durant still scored later on with a dribble-and-pop swish to keep the Clips at bay, 91-78, then after Marreese Speights missed a dunk and seemingly fell painfully to the floor (he got right back up, it appeared)…
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Later, after Kerr took a timeout to get Kevon Looney in for Varejao, who had yielded a jumper to Jamal Crawford with the tempo increasing, James McAdoo put back on the bank a missed scoop by that went too hard by Curry, and Golden State had a 16-point lead approaching a minute to play.
Steph hit a dribble-pop inside, Iguodala found Clark for a bounce-and-bury, and after Speights hit a three, but Iguodala converted a tremendous dribble drive at the buzzer as he scooped the ball high off the board:
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Q4: Nails In The Coffin
McAdoo continued his amazing play off the bench as he started the fourth quarter with an incredible block from behind on a drive by Rivers.
Thompson ended up with a bucket at the other end, off-balance.
Clark then got a hesi late in the shot clock past Felton for a lefty scoop, Iguodala hit a three up top thanks to a double on Durant in the high post…
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Clark got the loose ball and fired a touchdown pass to Iguodala for a reverse layup, and that gave Golden State a 113-92 lead, their largest of the night.
Out of a timeout, Redick missed a three and Durant did well to tap the ball away from Griffin, which then led to McAdoo playing give-and-go with Clark, Clark feeding “Mac” deep inside for him to take one dribble and go up for the uncontested dunk.
McAdoo was all over the place (in a good way) again, contesting a miss by Clark to get the ball back, tracking down a bad miss from distance by KD, but an entry pass to Klay became a turnover and Griffin drew a foul on McAdoo.
However, Curry came back in and promptly got a scoop past Brandon Bass’ help, then got doubled at the baseline and found a heady Clark cutting to the hole, which gave Steph ten assists.
Crawford hit a three, but Curry came back with a step-back over Bass on the right arc…
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The Clippers wouldn’t go away and trimmed the Warriors’ lead to 122-108 with 4:40 left.
Out of the timeout, Klay got a nice righty scoop driving down the left side with two Clips in pursuit after a nice jab step, but Rivers scored a touchdown on a pass by Speights after Curry airballed a step-back.
Steph tried another one, it rolled out, and Rivers drew a blocking foul on a drive to close the game to within 124-114 approaching two minutes:
[protected-iframe id=”3f27ee04c61b8aa5a420fc7a90ab28a2-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FNBA%2Fstatus%2F827396946063192064″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]McCaw made a bad inbound after a timeout and Rivers got a dunk at the other end, then Crawford blocked Steph and Rivers found “JC” at the top for three more.
All of a sudden, the Clips had the deficit down to 124-117 with 1:55 to play, thanks to a 9-0 run.
But Iguodala went down the lane, drew a second defender, which left McCaw open on the left side. He swung the ball back up to KD for a triple with the shot clock winding down, and the first nail was in the coffin as the Warriors went back up by ten.
Rivers got by Durant easily with no help at the rim, but Curry probed the left side, drew two guys and saw Klay in the right corner when nobody else did.
Thompson hit a three, Rivers drew another foul, this time on Iguodala, but the Clippers were running out of time.
Klay and Crawford traded missed threes, Thompson pulled the miss with 32 seconds left, and Steph was fouled.
Looney came in for Durant, who finished with 26 points, 8 rebounds, and 10 assists, Curry got doubled again, and Iguodala drained another triple, open on the left wing, and that killed off the Clippers, 133-120.
In Draymond Green, Zaza Pachulia, David West, and Shaun Livingston‘s absence the Warriors’ young’uns (Looney, McCaw, Clark, McAdoo) combined to go 14-for-23, 14 rebounds, and 11 assists.
Curry tallied 19 points, 11 assists, and Klay added 21 points, 7 rebounds.
The Warriors (43-7) head to Sacramento to play the Kings in two nights.
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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @baysdubs)
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