ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the New Orleans Pelicans at the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors took a 59-50 lead into the third quarter.
3rd Quarter – Steph Flurry
The Pelicans’ offense was stagnant out of the gate, and the Warriors took advantage. Klay Thompson earned a trip to the line after getting hammered by Dante Cunningham on a turnaround catch and, after Cunningham missed a late-shotclock trey attempt from the left wing, Stephen Curry got a pass on the short left baseline, spun around and banked a layup in over Alonzo Gee.
Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry took a quick timeout as the Warriors grew their nine-point halftime lead to 13, 63-50, with 9:55 remaining.
New Orleans continued to shoot blanks and when the ball went through the hoop, Anthony Davis got called for a charge into Draymond Green.
After trading free throws, both teams went on a drought of a few minutes when Andrew Bogut found himself at the top with the shotclock expiring. He threw it up and the ball went through the hoop:
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Davis missed a jumper, Cunningham made an impressive leaping rebound, tried a jump hook, but Bogut sent it away, Harrison Barnes outlet the rebound to Curry, who led the break, scissored into the paint, and found Klay Thompson open on the left wing for a triple.
Gentry called another timeout as the Warriors took a 73-55 lead with 6:05 to play.
Bogut found Curry on a backdoor cut, Green added a triple, and Leandro Barbosa made a left-side jumper at the shotclock buzzer before Ryan Anderson finally made an “and-one” for the Pelicans.
After this three by Green…
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…Curry got fouled beyond the arc by Jrue Holiday, Steph missed the second of three throws, and the Warriors had a commanding 85-60 lead with 3:05 to go.
After Davis got a left baseline bucket in the paint, Curry tried to get past Holiday on the right arc, Davis helped out, but Steph stepped back and drilled a triple over Davis’ outstretched arm.
Curry wasn’t done, though, as Barbosa drove lefty down the lane with Davis tracking, gave an upfake, Davis bit, Luke Babbitt came to help, but Barbosa passed up what seemed like an available shot at the rim.
Instead, he found Steph in the right corner and Curry caught and shot the ball seemingly in one motion, his heels tickling the sideline a la Sean Elliott, with Orlando Johnson closing. Swish!
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That made it 95-61, Golden State, but Curry had one more trick up his sleeve. On the last possession, Anderson switched onto Steph and got sized up, stepped backed on, and banked on with 1.8 seconds to go, 30 feet away from the hoop:
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Curry’s three gave him 11 points in the final 3:05 of the third, 27 points in total on 11-for-16 field, 4-for-9 downtown, as the Warriors took a comfortable 94-69 lead heading into the fourth period.
4th Quarter – Steph Celebrates 4th From Bench
Livingston and Douglas exchanged a pair of FTs to open the quarter, then Speights railed a couple assisted jumpers from Livingston and Barnes to make it 100-71.
Douglas answered with a 3, but Speights came back with another jumper set up by Shaun. Babbitt answered with a floater before Mo was called for a defensive 3 seconds and Anderson knocked down the freebie to cut the Warriors lead down to 102-77.
Klay pulled up for a long 3 on the right wing to stretch the lead to 105-77 and Mo collected a rebound and pushed ahead to Clark who hit the running Speights in the lane. Fouled and splits free throws to make it 106-77 with 8:02 to play.
Ryan Anderson made a curl cut put up a pump fake that got Speights in the air for an uncontested dunk. A missed Harrison wing jumper led to Gee getting in the lane, where he was fouled. He made both FTs to make it 106-81 with 7:24 left.
An out of bounds play from Clark to cutting Klay was goal-tended by Cunningham, but Anderson outback a missed Babbitt runner to make it 108-83 with 6:43.
Barnes then found Rush for a corner 3, but Cunningham beat the defense back and got a dunk off a baseline cut. Clark nailed a floater, but Babbitt hit a 3 from the top to make it 113-88 with 5:13 left in the quarter.
A turnover that went off Mo’s hands led to a Gee dunk. Rush missed an open look from the wing, and Mo committed a foul on Gee, who hit both FTs to make it 113-92 4:28.
McAdoo committed another turnover but Douglas dribbled out of bounds. A missed Speights step back led to a McAdoo rebound with the hoop plus the harm. He hit the FT to make it 116-92.
Clark pick pockted Douglas but McAdoo mishandled in transition to give it right back. Anderson drew another foul on Barbosa and hit two more free throws. Then Clark hit McAdoo back door for a dunk.
Anderson missed a step back jumper but Alonzo Gee’s offensive rebound led to a Douglas 3-pointer. Sleights drew another foul and hit both FTs, but immediately gave it back with an and-1 opportunity for Babbit, who converted to make it 120-100 with 2:17 left.
The Warriors lit the victory cigar as Barbosa drove the lane and kicked to Speights up top. Mo Buckets knocked down the catch and shoot 3, then Mo repaid the favor by hitting Leandro backdoor for a layup to make it 125-100.
Gee collected another offensive rebound and dunked it down to make it 125-102, Mo missed a 3-pointer long and Douglas ran it out for a layup. Clark also missed a long 3 that led to a step back 3 for Douglas to finalize the score 125-107. Both teams had one more possession but Barbosa missed a runner and Douglas airmailed a 3 as the buzzer sounded.
Stephen Curry finished with 27 points, just one short of his age, to go with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. He also improved him to 2-2 on his birthday since entering the NBA.
Draymond Green put up 14 points, 12 rebounds and 4 assists. Klay Thompson scored 18 and both Speights and McAdoo added double digits off the bench with 14 and 11, respectively.
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