A day-and-a-half after a convincing win in Houston, the Golden State Warriors (37-6) were at Amway Center for an unusually early tipoff against the Orlando Magic (18-27).
The Warriors were without David West (non-displaced fracture, thumb) and Shaun Livingston was given the day off.
The Magic were without Evan Fournier (heel), Jodie Meeks (thumb). C.J. Wilcox (knee) was listed as questionable.
Q1: JaVale And Ian Clean Up Starters’ Mess
Klay Thompson made it look like the Warriors weren’t affected by the early tipoff, with a three, but that changed quickly, as Golden State committed five turnovers after that.
A lead pass from Thompson to Zaza Pachulia went ignored, another pass from Draymond Green went through Pachulia’s hands, an offensive rebound by Green got slipped up by Kevin Durant for a run-out scoop by Serge Ibaka, Zaza got his own rebound but threw an out pass past Klay into the stands, Stephen Curry stepped on the left sideline, and Thompson threw a terrible pass to Draymond in the corner that went out of bounds.
Still, the Warriors did well on the scoring end, Zaza getting an inside up-fake bucket against Aaron Gordon, Green drew free throws on a baseball pass full-court from Curry, and Klay hit another triple. After the Warriors’ fifth turnover, head coach Steve Kerr called timeout with game tied, 10-10, and 7:13 remaining.
Later, Steph made the Warriors’ 7th turnover, another bad pass that led to a Gordon two-hand flush, then a Draymond errant pass went straight into the hands of C.J. Watson, but Watson lost the ball out of bounds on the open floor.
Still, Durant couldn’t get anything going early on, missed, and Elfrid Payton found Gordon for another dunk in transition, capping a 12-0 run for the Magic as they took a 16-10 lead.
However, Curry came back immediately with a three over Nikola Vucevic to halve the lead…
[protected-iframe id=”0e326eb26537ede197957c255096989e-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FNBA%2Fstatus%2F823238008488992768″ width=”680″ height=”320″ frameborder=”0″]…then drove in for another bucket, missed a three, then Durant missed again, but JaVale McGee came in and tipped in the miss. With 3:31 to play, Magic head coach Frank Vogel called timeout as the Warriors cut the deficit to 20-17.
Out of the timeout, Payton got an impressive dunk down the lane off a double-screen, but Steph answered going down the lane as well, dishing a behind-the-back lefty flick to McGee for a slam.
Ian Clark then snatched a miss and threw a touchdown pass to JaVale, who faded away from the rim for two more.
KD then blocked a Gordon fade and, at the other end, took Gordon strong on the right baseline for the contact and the basket. With 2:10 to go, Durant’s bonus free throw gave the Warriors a 24-22 lead:
[protected-iframe id=”e77527e6aa8af57e26a7b8b03ebb8333-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F823221840382308352″ width=”680″ height=”320″ frameborder=”0″]Payton missed, then McGee handed off to Durant, who drove right and lofted a lob to JaVale for another two-hand smash:
[protected-iframe id=”673f922ae971803f822fba611c3e075e-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F823222067289985024″ width=”680″ height=”320″ frameborder=”0″]After Gordon missed a three, Clark took and missed a three as well, but McGee got the rebound at the left elbow. Clark cut to the hole, and JaVale fed him a pass for an easy two.
Closing out the quarter, McGee got a rim attack blocked by Ibaka, and Payton and Curry exchanged missed scoops, and the Warriors held a 28-22 lead at the end of one.
Q2: More Turnovers, But Steph Sparks Comeback
The second stanza got off to an auspicious start as Clark stepped on the sideline in the right corner, Andre Iguodala got called for a double-dribble, and Clark ran pick-and-roll with Draymond, only to throw the ball away as Green never rolled.
Jeff Green then fed Bismack Biyombo for a dunk and Kerr took a timeout with 8:56 to go, down 31-28.
Out of the timeout, Golden State continued their slide, as Kevon Looney and Patrick McCaw both got swatted by Biyombo and Mario Hezonja scored on the break against Iguodala and Draymond, with the foul from Green.
Hezonja missed the free throw, but Jeff Green got the board, made the putback, and got fouled again by Draymond, and after his free throw, the Magic were suddenly up, 36-28, with 8:16 left.
Klay then lost the ball on a drive, the Warriors’ 11th turnover, and Watson played “tic-tac-toe” with Payton, who found Biyombo for a slam, capping a 16-0 run.
Pachulia finally broke the drought inside on a jump hook, fed by Iguodala, but Jeff Green hit a three.
Later, Hezonja hit a deep three to keep Orlando up by 11, but Zaza answered the call again, get a rather ugly bank shot to drop inside, assisted by Curry.
Pachulia scored again, fed by McCaw, but after Gordon got blocked on a jumper again by Durant, Steph brought the ball up and pulled up from about 28 feet straightaway to close the gap to 45-40:
[protected-iframe id=”4f1420c2177dc458debcec0ca1b42b12-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F823229420362047488″ width=”680″ height=”320″ frameborder=”0″]Durant then drew three free throws on Hezonja and made two of them, got a steal, and drove in for the fast break finger rool.
Gordon pushed off on a dribble versus KD, and Durant drove inside from the right side, finding Curry in the left corner for three more, and the Warriors had the game tied, 47-47, with 1:02 remaining.
But Draymond committed the Warriors’ 12th turnover with a bad pass to Steph. Golden State got the ball back, though, and Klay hit a three from the right wing on a pass from Iguodala with 29.3 seconds to play.
Watson responded with a floater and-one against Durant, the contact occurring after the ball was nearly in the hoop on a questionable call, and with 12.2 seconds to go, the game was tied, 50-50.
Kerr called a twenty-second timeout, but on the inbound, Thompson slipped, got the ball to Iguodala, and he couldn’t get a contested bucket inside before the buzzer.
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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @thomascarrigan)
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