A night
after escaping Philadelphia with a buzzer-beater, the Golden State Warriors (43-4) were at Madison Square Garden to face the New York Knicks (23-26).
The Warriors were without Festus Ezeli, whose knee would get re-evaluated the following day, and James McAdoo (toe). The Knicks were without Jose Calderon (groin) and Cleanthony Early (knee).
1st Quarter – Ugliness
Knicks rookie sensation Kristaps Porzingis then charged into Draymond Green and, not long thereafter, reached in on a Green drive, forcing New York head coach Derek Fisher to sub Porzingis out with barely 90 seconds played.
The game was sloppy as both teams clanked shots rather badly. Draymond made a poor lead pass to a cutting Curry, Carmelo Anthony made a careless pass, Steph’s curl-and-pivot jumper was short, and Arron Afflalo missed an open running jumper.
Finally at the 9:17 mark, Curry converted a finger roll thanks to a beautiful lead bouncer by Andrew Bogut.
After Lance Thomas hit the back iron on a jumper, Harrison Barnes drilled a jumper from the left elbow in transition, Anthony committed another turnover, Thompson threw it right back, and Thomas gave it back to Green.
The ugliness continued as Steph lobbed the ball over the rim to Bogut, who wasn’t expecting it. Bogut still managed to retrieve it, got it Thompson, who found Barnes on the right wing for a triple. Fisher called timeout as the Warriors took a quick 7-0 lead with 8:07 to go.
But the Knicks went on an 11-0 run after the timeout, as the Warriors continued sloppy play and missed field goals. Bogut made a bad screen on a Curry side-step beyond the arc, Steph missed two in a row on one sequence, Curry couldn’t catch a simple pass…
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…Draymond airballed a free throw and bricked the other one…
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…and Andre Iguodala had the ball bounce off his leg out of bounds to the sideline.
That represented Golden State’s sixth turnover and when Thompson missed the next jumper, the teams were a combined 6-for-24 out of the gate as Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout with 4:27 left and the Knicks taking an 11-7 lead.
Kerr inserted Marreese Speights and Leandro Barbosa, but New York kept fighting, as Robin Lopez got an up-and-under to drop past Speights, and Lopez followed that up with a late-shotclock banker from twenty feet.
Curry finally got going with a curl-pivot-launch assisted by Iguodala…
There we go. Steph #SPLASH on @csnauthentic. pic.twitter.com/cIhjnOf0vE
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) February 1, 2016
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…Speights swished a jumper from straightaway assisted by Green, and after Anthony drained a hand-off from Lopez, Steph came back with a deep triple to close the gap to 20-18 before the quarter:
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Curry had the last possession of the first frame, but after scissoring his way past Langston Galloway and into the teeth of the Knicks’ paint, Lopez swatted him with just 0.1 seconds remaining:
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Steph tallied 8 points but was just 3-for-9, while Klay only got one shot off, a miss. The Warriors committed a ghastly 8 turnovers, but the Knicks shot just 6-for-21. The 18 points was the lowest Warriors output in the first quarter this season.
2nd Quarter – Klay Heats Up Again
The first two minutes were an uphill struggle for Golden State, as Derrick Williams cut through the lane for a ferocious tomahawk dunk, Kyle O’Quinn got a bucket to drop, and Barnes threw the ball away. With 9:50 left, Kerr took another timeout with the Knicks up, 24-18.
Out of the timeout, a Shaun Livingston dunk on a catch after a cut seemed to spark the Warriors, as Draymond hit a three from the top, Thompson hit a catch-and-shoot jumper assisted by Green in the post, and Livingston hit a three from the left side, in front of the Warriors’ bench, also Green’s fourth assist:
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Curry was the first to celebrate:
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Porzingis had come back in previously and answered with a long two that swished through, but Thompson answered that with a left side drive past O’Quinn, getting fouled by him from behind, for an “and-one” scoop:
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That gave Golden State a 33-31 lead with 7:15 to go as Curry checked back in.
After free throws from Anthony on a Barnes hack at the shotclock buzzer, Klay made a catch-and-shoot trey from the right wing, Draymond’s sixth assist…
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…then after Galloway missed a jumper, Green went coast-to-coast, starting with the defensive rebound and ending with a two-handed dunk down the lane:
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Fisher called another timeout as the Warriors took a 38-33 lead with 6:09 before halftime.
Kerr went with his “small ball” lineup out of the timeout and shortly thereafter, Thompson went down the lane on a Green post and got a two-hand dunk, giving the Warriors nine straight buckets without a miss, totaling 57% from the field.
Porzingis answered with a swish from the left arc, but Klay counter-punched with a near-identical three on the other end over Porzingis, who was late to close out:
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Later, Draymond up-faked Porzingis from the top of the arc, then took him left-handed for a layup off the board to make it 47-40 with 3:01 remaining, and giving Green 9 points, 4 rebounds, and 8 assists.
Anthony answered with an easy reverse lefty layup past Klay and Kerr called timeout to discuss the “matador” defense, with the Warriors still up 47-42 with 2:45 to go.
Thompson came back with a nice drive…
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…and with 1:40 remaining, Iguodala got a nice feed from Green and appeared to shank a right-hand dunk short, but replays showed that Williams hit in on the left arm. Still, Iguodala missed the second free throw.
Later, with time expiring, Curry drove towards the left corner and dished a behind-the-back flick with the left hand to Draymond for a swish jumper just inside the arc on the left wing with 5.7 seconds left, but Jerian Grant raced upcourt and found Williams for three at the buzzer from the right corner.
That trimmed the Warriors’ lead to 55-49 at halftime. Anthony and Thompson led all scorers with 17 points, with Klay’s points all coming in the second quarter, while Green added 11-4-8 and Curry was stuck on 8 points. Porzingis headed to the locker room with 3 personal fouls. Golden State was up to 61.8% shooting, going 7-for-11 beyond the arc.
The only shot Curry made was this lefty hook after a foul call late in the quarter:
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(Photo: @letsgowarrirs Instagram account via @mikeyo_329)
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