THE PALACE OF AUBURN HILLS, AUBURN HILLS, MI — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Detroit Pistons.
The Pistons took a 59-57 lead into halftime.
Q3: JaVale! But No Separation
Klay Thompson got a layup blocked nicely by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to start the third frame and Stephen Curry missed a floater plus Draymond Green missed a triple, but Zaza Pachulia helped the Warriors get back.
First, he absorbed a hard foul by both Reggie Jackson and Marcus Morris and canned both free throws, then he put back a three-point miss by Curry and got hacked in the process. Pachulia hit the bonus free throw.
JaVale McGee came in and, per head coach Steve Kerr’s usual plan, changed the game.
First, Kevin Durant put his imprint on the game again as he hit from the top, then went down the lane for a lefty and-one assisted by Green, Draymond’s 10th assist of the night, and McGee was fouled and hit both free throws which gave the Warriors a 76-72 lead.
Later, Green went top shelf again to McGee and Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy called a twenty-second timeout, but Golden State only held a 78-75 lead.
Out of the timeout, Jon Leuer front-rimmed a jumper, then Curry up-faked, headed into the lane, left a bounce pass for JaVale. McGee mishandled it, got it back, scored a dunk and got fouled.
His free throw put the Warriors up, 81-75, as they looked for separation.
Morris answered that quickly, with a three to answer.
After a bad pass by Leuer that Green stole, Curry found himself covered by Leuer again, up-faked him, went into the lane, dished a behind-the-back zinger to Andre Iguodala underneath, and Iguodala dropped a pass for another JaVale jam.
McGee added a swat of Jackson’s layup attempt at the other end, Kerr took a timeout, and after an empty Pistons possession, Green found Steph wide-open on the left wing as the Detroit defense focused on McGee inside.
Curry’s three gave the Warriors an 86-78 lead, but the separation would not continue.
Tobias Harris hit a three to answer, Caldwell-Pope and Green traded free throws, McGee gave a bad screen, Curry stole the ball but turned it over right back, and Aron Baynes lobbed to Harris for an alley-oop.
Draymond then got called for traveling on a pass, Jackson missed a triple just before the buzzer, and Harris flew by the short-rimmed shot to tip the ball in, but it was after the buzzer.
Golden State held an 88-86 lead heading into the final frame.
Q4: Klutch
Shaun Livingston hit a jumper fed by David West, but Klay made a bad pass and Durant stepped on the right sideline and the Warriors couldn’t string anything together.
Out of timeout by Kerr, Iguodala threw the ball away and Stanley Johnson went upstairs to Harris on the break, but West countered with a swish from the right baseline.
Durant hit two buckets in a row, but then got called for a foul on what appeared to be a blocked shot on Johnson in transition. That forced Kerr to sit KD down, now with five personals.
West hit another baseline jumper, but Ish Smith, who had a strong first half, came off the bench and got a triple to trickle in.
West found Ian Clark with a lead pass on a quasi-Triangle play with Thompson:
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Clark scored yet again via West, but turned the ball over on the next lead pass and at a timeout, the Warriors held a 102-99 lead to 5:02 to play.
Caldwell-Pope made a nice cut and got rewarded for it by Jackson, then Clark couldn’t handle Curry’s pass to him inside, and Caldwell-Pope came back with a three from the top that hit back iron, bounced way up high, and dropped through, and the Pistons had a 104-102 lead.
Steph answered by going righty down the lane off high backboard past Leuer, then Green missed a jumper, but Pachulia got a big paw on the rebound and tapped it back out.
Curry reset the offense, ran pick-and-roll with Zaza, and hit a triple, forcing Van Gundy to call timeout as the Warriors went back up, 107-104, with 3:08 to go.
Detroit weathered the storm, though, and Harris hit a trey from the right wing on a catch from Jackson.
That was still no match for what Golden State had, though, as true to how the Dubs play, Green missed again, this time from the right arc.
The miss, however, hit back-iron, Iguodala snagged the board, and fired to Durant for the three from the top.
The clutch bucket gave the Warriors a 110-108 lead with 1:58 left.
Out of the timeout, Jackson got to the line, but the Warriors ran a play for Green and Thompson threw him an alley-oop to go back up, 112-110. Curry supplied the pick and the bucket was Draymond’s first two points of the game:
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Caldwell-Pope missed a three, and Thompson was on the right side again, going with a step-back jumper to give the Warriors a 114-110 lead with 53.2 seconds remaining as Van Gundy called another timeout.
Out of the timeout, Caldwell-Pope hit a jumper over Iguodala for his 24th and 25th points on the night, but Klay went to work one last time, a triple that splashed with 22.1 seconds to play, enabled by a Draymond off-ball screen:
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Green celebrated as the Warriors took an insurmountable 117-112 lead:
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So the Pistons had the ball with 14.5 seconds left, down 117-113, but the inbound to Leuer took awhile to unfold and Jackson ended up taking a tough leaning jumper.
Steph got the rebound, was fouled, and the final score after his free throws was 119-113.
Durant led all scorers with 32 points on another efficient evening going 13-for-18 from the field and 8 rebounds. Curry was 5-for-9 from distance to tally 25 points, 8 assists, but also 5 turnovers. Thompson scored 17 points and Green 10 boards and 12 dimes.
Caldwell-Pope led the Pistons with 28 points including 4 treys and Harris had 26 points off the bench on 8-for-14 shooting to go along with 7 rebounds. Drummond chipped in 15 points, 9 boards.
Golden State will take one-and-a-half days off before facing the Cavs on Christmas.
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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @mattcaruana)
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