ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Miami Heat at the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors took a 56-54 lead into halftime.
3rd Quarter – Heat Claw Back
The Warriors got some separation early in the third quarter as Klay Thompson finally hit a three…
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…Draymond Green got a layup in transition, and Stephen Curry made a reverse layup, and fed Dray with this amazing pass…
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Then Goran Dragic lost his dribble, the ball appeared to bounce off of Andrew Bogut’s foot, Dragic pleaded to the ref, to no avail.
Meanwhile, the Warriors inbounded and Curry raced up the court and caught the ball for an easy lefty layup.
With 8:48 to go, Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra took a timeout as Golden State took a 64-56 lead.
After the timeout, Curry added a dribble-and-pop past a Green screen to swish a pull-up jumper, then after Steph missed another three (3-for-12 overall), Thompson drove to the bucket for a layup on the right side as he duped his defender into thinking he was going to use an on-ball screen from Bogut.
Another excellent on-ball steal by Thompson, this time on Luol Deng, eventually led to one of two free throws by Brandon Rush, and the Warriors had a 69-59 lead with 6:13 to go.
But Curry hit off rim on his next three-point attempt, Tyler Johnson scored on a drive, and Gerald Green, who has had big games against the Warriors in the past, made trey to pull the Heat back to within 69-64.
Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton took a timeout and re-inserted his small-ball lineup of Curry, Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes, and Green.
Curry knocked the ball away from Deng, which led to an Iguodala finish at the rim with a lefty finger roll, then Klay drilled a three from the right wing after the ball bounced to him on a miss from beyond the arc on the left wing by Steph.
But Gerald Green made an impressive hanging bankshot from the left side, with the foul, over Draymond to stop the bleeding and that brought Miami back to within two possessions, 76-70.
Curry made an incredible inside-out dribble left-handed on the left side, then went with an upfake, but the shot went in-and-out. However, Draymond was there for two tip-ins in a row, the second one falling.
Barnes blocked Udonis Haslem, which led to a Draymond layup fed by Shaun Livingston, but Gerald Green cut another Warriors ten-point lead to seven with a pivot-catch-and-shoot triple from the left wing.
Justise Winslow got an isolation jumper to swish over Draymond and Johnson fed Dragic for a layup, Curry front-rimmed a halfcourt shot at the quarter buzzer, and the Heat had clawed their way back to just a three-point deficit, 80-77, before the start of the fourth period.
4th Quarter – MoBuckets!
Marreese Speights started the fourth period and gave the Warriors an instant spark, hitting his first two long jumpers, then out-working underneath the hoop and putting back a short-rimmed jumpshot from Barnes.
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Barnes added a right baseline turnaround jumper over Dragic and Spoelstra called another timeout with the Warriors up, 88-79, with 9:09 to play.
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Gerald Green got a left baseline two-handed slam out of the timeout, but Livingston answered immediately with a lob to Iguodala after Speights set him a screen.
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Speights wasn’t finished, delivering a hanging assist under-handed to a cutting Ian Clark as Golden State took their biggest lead, 92-81, with 7:57 to go.
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The Heat answered with five straight points, but they couldn’t chip into the Warriors’ lead as an Iguodala three was answered by a Deng three, but Klay got fouled by Gerald Green outside the arc for three more free throws and Curry drilled a triple over Johnson, Livingston’s sixth assist, to go up, 101-88.
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After Thompson made a one-legged fade-away in the paint after going with a pump fake on Dragic…
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…Deng hit a floater over Curry, Klay missed a fade-away on the left baseline late in the shotclock over Wade, and Deng hit an open triple from the left wing.
Incredibly, Miami had fought back to be within two possessions as Walton called another timeout with 2:34 remaining and the Warriors’ lead dwindled to 103-97.
But out the timeout, Draymond got a pass from Curry and Bosh shaded him too far on the right hand. Green gave Bosh an upfake, took him strong on the left baseline, Deng was late on the help, and Draymond slammed home the two points.
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Wade missed a fade and Curry dribbled to the right and popped a swish from the right wing to pull back ahead, 107-97, with 1:42 left.
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Dragic went down the lane after another timeout from Spoelstra, but the Heat were running out of time.
Thompson drove to the lane, slipped on a wet spot, missed rather badly, but Draymond got the offensive board and the Warriors were putting their clamps on another victory.
Wade came back with some impressive tips at the rim, finally getting the call from the ref to go to the line and cut their deficit back to 107-101, but Steph smelled blood, ran pick-and-roll with Draymond at the deep left wing, pulled up over Bosh, and the triple swished through with 26.9 seconds remaining.
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Golden State went up 110-101 with that shot and the game ended with Wade converting a dunk, with Curry going one-for-two from the line to close out.
Final score: Warriors (36-2), 111-103. The Warriors head to Denver to face the Nuggets in two nights.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @warriors_kingdom)
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