This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Washington Wizards.
The Warriors took a 74-60 lead into halftime.
3rd Quarter – 8 More For The Chef
Stephen Curry, who scored a individual career-high of 36 points in one half, got off to an inauspicious start, committing a bad pass to Harrison Barnes, stolen by Otto Porter for an uncontested dunk at the other end.
Porter added a fade-away, John Wall added a jumper, and after a Draymond Green miss, Garrett Temple went the length of the court and got a reverse layup in transition to drop as Andrew Bogut was whistled for the foul:
Up and under, and one! We see you, Temp! #WizWarriors pic.twitter.com/r70cjoe5oj
— Washington Wizards (@WashWizards) February 4, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout. Temple made the free throw after the break to make it 76-69 with 10:10 remaining, but Klay Thompson drilled a three from the right wing on a designed play, assisted by Green with Curry supplying the pick to free Thompson up.
But the Wizards went on another run as Steph committed his sixth turnover, resulting in a Wall dunk. Wall topped that with a three, then Marcin Gortat cut and got the feed from Wall after Curry lost the ball out of bounds on a dribble, his seventh turnover of the night.
With the score 79-77, Warriors, with 8:24 to go, Kerr decided against calling a timeout, Klay missed a jumper, but Rush got the rebound and found Barnes for a jumper.
However, Gortat scored on a roll with Wall, his seventh assist.
Both teams traded empty possessions, with Curry drawing his third personal, but Wall committed his fourth on a rebound, bumping into Andre Iguodala on a missed three by Brandon Rush.
Out of the timeout, Curry found Iguodala for a three from the right wing.
Later, after Bradley Beal missed a step-back triple rebounded by Rush, Curry came down and zig-zagged through Garrett Temple, then a helping Nene Hilario, and a one-handed floater fell through the hoop to give the Warriors an 86-79 lead with 4:57 left:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
But Curry missed his next two threes and a foul on Nene on a putback of a Beal blow-by of Green gave Nene two free throws. He split the pair to bring the Wizards to within just two points, 86-84.
On a side out, Steph got the inbound, was doubled, found Draymond in the middle, who found Leandro Barbosa in the left corner. Barbosa passed up the shot to dish to Rush, who drove in from the left wing and fed Iguodala for a three-pointer from the right wing.
Beal then missed a three, Rush rebounded, brought it up, found Barbosa, who flipped to Curry for catch-and-shoot swish from the deep left wing, giving Curry 41 points:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Less than a minute later, Steph swished his tenth triple, 10-for-13 from downtown, and, just like that, the Warriors pushed their lead to 99-86 with 2:08 left:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Right before the end of the quarter, Beal made a layup, Iguodala took the inbound, crossed halfcourt, and got fouled by Gortat in an effort to stop the break (or “Hack-An-Andre”). Iguodala flicked the shot up with one hand from about forty feet, drained it, but the referees waved off the basket, saying Gortat’s foul was on the floor, before Iguodala wound up for the shot.
Andre missed both, but the second free throw was so short, it caromed right back to Iguodala, who mis-timed it, but Marreese Speights was there to catch the ball and give it to Barbosa.
“The Blur” blew past his defender, but lost the ball. However, the ball pinballed right back to him and he calmly drilled the jumper with 3.4 seconds remaining, as if it were a designed play.
Barbosa’s basket gave Golden State a 102-92 lead heading into the final frame.
4th Quarter – Livingston Microwaves
Washington quickly cut the lead to 105-99 with 9:51 to play, as Gary Neal hit a three and a jumper, while Wall added a jumper, while Speights hit a jumper, but Iguodala and Barbosa missed threes. Kerr took a timeout.
Shaun Livingston exploded for eight of the Warriors’ next 11 points, getting an isolation jumper out of the timeout over the smaller Ramon Sessions, adding another two jumpers, including this turnaround baseline swish…
.@ShaunLivingston doing work on CSNBA & ESPN. pic.twitter.com/jUxbjCU509
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) February 4, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
…then capped by a off-ball screen by Curry to free up Livingston for a reverse backdoor layup in which he switched hands on the catch to convert.
Thompson added a three from the right corner after Iguodala and Gortat traded bad passes.
But Wall buoyed the Wizards with an “up-and-under” reverse layup plus a stop-and-pop, then a beautiful one-handed bounce pass to Gortat on the slip.
That gave Wall nine assists to go along with 33 points and the Wizards were still within striking range, down 116-108, with 5:46 remaining.
Later, Livingston made a poor cross-court pass, but the Wizards missed another layup, with Porter off target from point-blank range. Livingston brought the ball up and, as is so often the case, found Curry for three over Gortat in transition:
He's at 11! #SPLASH pic.twitter.com/vkqclNfIv0
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) February 4, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Wizards head coach Don Newman had no choice but to call timeout as Golden State took a 120-109 lead with 4:22 left.
Out of the timeout, Beal got a layup and Temple made two free throws, but Iguodala received a pass in the middle of the floor from a Crruy drive, and dished right back out to Klay for a triple from the left arc:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Washington was running out of time and Steph got a layup plus another one, although it shouldn’t have been, because Curry missed the reverse layup off the board and rim and the referees called an incorrect goal-tending.
Nevertheless, that helped Curry cross the fifty barrier with 51 points.
Nene missed another point-blank bucket, Green collected a rebound from a missed Wall free throw to give Draymond his tenth triple-double of the season, to go along with five blocked shots on the night, and later Green crossed Nene off the dribble for a layup to give him 12 points.
Meanwhile, Wall kept attacking the rim, reaching 38 points after a Thompson bad pass, but Klay got redemption on a catch-and-shoot triple from the right wing, Green delivering his 11th assist and Curry an off-ball screen to free Thompson up.
Wall answered with a “too-little-too-late” triple, giving him 41 points, but the Warriors were too far ahead, 132-121.
Green added his 12th assist on a softly defensed drive-and-dish to Iguodala for the two-handed slam, as the Warriors (45-4) won the game, 134-121.
Curry tallied 51 points on 19-for-28 field, 11-for-16 downtown, 7 rebounds, 2 assists, and 7 turnovers, as well as a double-douse of water from Green in the post-game TV interview:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Thompson had a quiet 24 points as Barnes added 12, Iguodala 9, and Livingston 9 on 4-for-5 shooting.
Beal had 18 points off the bench for the Wizards.
The Warriors will visit the White House tomorrow before heading back to Oakland for a game against OKC in three nights.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @kokiisthekey)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
