MODA CENTER, PORTLAND, OR — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Portland Trail Blazers.
The Warriors held a 53-50 lead at halftime.
Q3: Gettin’ Iggy Wit It
Klay Thompson hit a jumper and, after Kevin Durant poked the ball out from Noah Vonleh under the rim, Durant finished at the other end with a strong finger roll off the board:
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Green missed an ill-advised trey from the top, and Evan Turner cashed in a left-corner three on an extra pass from Damian Lillard via McCollum, and the Blazers were back to within 60-59 with 8:21 remaining.
Out of the timeout, the Warriors got a little separation as Livingston hit a runner thanks to a hand-off by Zaza Pachulia and Andre Iguodala drew a charge.
Aminu hit a three to tie the game at 64-64 with 6:52 to play, but McCollum lost the ball to Pachulia and Zaza went coast-to-coast on a “bumblin’ rumblin’” play as Mason Plumlee ran back to foul him.
After a rare carrying violation called on Durant in transition, JaVale McGee came in, got a steal, then converted a jump hook as Blazers head coach Terry Stotts called timeout with the Warriors taking a 74-68 lead.
Maurice Harkless got a dunk, but McGee went top shelf to catch a lob by Durant and, in traffic, force in a high-degree-of-difficulty banker:
[protected-iframe id=”dd39b89098a48929cf0f517d5c27f2dd-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F825912764434640897″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]After a missed trey by Aminu, JaVale rolled and got fouled, but missed both free throws.
Iguodala hit a three after a missed one from the opposite side by Ian Clark, then after Aminu missed another jumper, Clark the board, outlet to Iguodala and Andre pulled up from the right arc in stride, nailing the triple and giving the Warriors an 84-72 lead:
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Out of the timeout, the Warriors got a little separation as Livingston hit a runner thanks to a hand-off by Zaza Pachulia and Andre Iguodala drew a charge.
Aminu hit a three to tie the game at 64-64 with 6:52 to play, but McCollum lost the ball to Pachulia and Zaza went coast-to-coast on a “bumblin’ rumblin’” play as Mason Plumlee ran back to foul him.
After a rare carrying violation called on Durant in transition, JaVale McGee came in, got a steal, then converted a jump hook as Blazers head coach Terry Stotts called timeout with the Warriors taking a 74-68 lead.
Maurice Harkless got a dunk, but McGee went top shelf to catch a lob by Durant and, in traffic, force in a high-degree-of-difficulty banker:
[protected-iframe id=”dd39b89098a48929cf0f517d5c27f2dd-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F825912764434640897″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]After a missed trey by Aminu, JaVale rolled and got fouled, but missed both free throws.
Iguodala hit a three after a missed one from the opposite side by Ian Clark, then after Aminu missed another jumper, Clark the board, outlet to Iguodala and Andre pulled up from the right arc in stride, nailing the triple and giving the Warriors an 84-72 lead:
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Q4: The Great Escape
Things held steady for Golden State, but a Draymond turnover turned into an Aminu-to-Harkless score at the rim, then after a Livingston jumper, McCollum hit a three from the right wing, Klay missed, and Allen Crabbe found Harkless once again at the rim, this time for a slam, and the Blazers had the Warriors’ lead cut all the way down to 90-86 with 8:50 remaining as Kerr called timeout.
Out of the timeout, Thompson lost the ball and McCollum struck again from distance, this time over Livingston, the Warriors came back with free throws, but Durant got called for a questionable traveling violation…
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Durant swished a dribble-and-pop in the lane thanks to a tap-out by Zaza…
[protected-iframe id=”02eb5c6f6838b4c791fdfa1a686a1042-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F825920281633910784″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]…for KD’s 26th and 27th points on the night, then after a steal by Green against Lillard, Pachulia got swatted inside by Mason Plumlee, but dove for a loose ball, tweaking his right shoulder in the process and picking up a foul on Turner:
[protected-iframe id=”487a7905ba47eeff4d1e62b02921608e-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F825918931563012096″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]Zaza missed the first and willed in the second free throw despite the sore shooting shoulder, then both teams exchanged missed threes and Kerr called timeout with 2:55 to go and the Warriors up, 99-95.
But Plumlee put back a missed Aminu triple and Iguodala had trouble running a set, leaving Green to shoot a late three. However, Pachulia tapped the ball out, Durant tracked it down and hit a jumper.
Turner and Durant traded jumpers…
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But Lillard drew three free throws quickly using an up-fake on James McAdoo, who had had an effective first half, with 31.8 seconds left. It appeared McAdoo had gotten all ball.
Draymond couldn’t get the inbound to Klay, but the Warriors called timeout, Durant hit two free throws on the take from the Blazers, Lillard got an easy layup as Golden State focused on stopping the three, and Thompson hit just one of two on the next foul take by Portland, giving the Warriors a 109-104 lead with 27.5 seconds remaining.
McCollum then hit a step-back over Klay, forcing Kerr to call timeout with 16.7 seconds to play as the Blazers closed to within 109-107.
Thompson hit both free throws, but Turner came back with another easy-looking layup, going past Klay.
Thompson hit two more from the charity stripe with 10.0 seconds to go, Turner got a carbon-copy layup again past Klay, this time ending with a dunk.
While trying to get open, Durant got called for a push-off, as Thompson got entangled with the baseline camera men, and suddenly the Blazers had the ball back with just 5.5 seconds left, down 113-111.
Plumlee inbounded to Turner, who stepped back on Durant. KD stumbled out of the play, giving Turner a chance to win the game with a trey, but the ball hit the rim twice before just bouncing out, and the Warriors (41-7) escaped with a 113-111 win over the Blazers (20-28):
[protected-iframe id=”58bf1538a49f87ab84411cb343fb18c8-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F825937849878876161″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″]Golden State now heads back to the Bay to face the Hornets at home in three nights.
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