ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Portland Trail Blazers at the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors took an 81-61 lead into halftime.
3rd Quarter – Humming Along
Stephen Curry went with a right-to-left dribble-and-pop from the top to start the third quarter, then Klay Thompson got a catch-and-shoot from the left baseline in transition from Curry, who got the outlet from Draymond Green, who rebounded a C.J. McCollum miss.
But Steph then bumped knees with Noah Vonleh as Vonleh set a pick for Damian Lillard. Vonleh got the ball back and drilled a triple as Curry limped away:
Steph is shaken up and getting looked at by the trainers on the bench pic.twitter.com/xC0Q4IqHh0
— KNBR (@KNBR) March 12, 2016
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Shortly thereafter, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr subbed in Ian Clark to get Steph’s knee looked at by the trainer. Clark got a chance for an open three, but missed it, and Curry returned just two minutes later with no noticeable limp or response to the initial injury.
Green found himself in the post defended by Lillard on two occasions and took advantage:
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Although he missed his first try, Bogut got the offensive board tap-out to Klay who was waiting beyond the arc and drilled another one, giving him eight makes from downtown on ten attempts.
The next time Draymond was guarded by Lillard in the post, he found Bogut in the middle and his push shot went in.
Curry made an impressive layup in traffic, probably with a foul that was not called, the Blazers tapped the ball when it was in the cylinder, and the Warriors took a 97-68 lead with 5:47 to go in the third as Portland head coach Terry Stotts took a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Green drove and got a kick-out to Steph, who drilled another three. It was Green’s sixth assist to go along with 10 points and 9 rebounds.
Draymond later added a putback of Curry’s airball from the right corner while pivoting, a difficult shot to pull off, but McCollum, center Meyers Leonard, and Lillard hit threes and Steph added another missed layup, having a scoop roll out even though he was well before Leonard’s defense of the rim.
Of most concern was Andre Iguodala, who lost a dribble and, as the ball bounced away to halfcourt, Lillard dove and pinned Iguodala’s ankle enough to tweak it. Lillard was called for the foul, which resulted in penalty free throws for Iguodala. Iguodala split the pair, then exited and headed to the locker room.
Finishing out the quarter, Steph made a triple with 1:08 remaining, then missed a two-for-one from deep, which Lillard answered with a step-back trey, and Green took a deep three with two seconds to go that bounded off the rim out of bounds, but off a Blazer.
Curry received the inbound amidst two Portland players, jumped, dribbled, and threw up a scoop that somehow hit the backboard yet missed badly.
The Warriors took a 110-86 lead into the final frame.
4th Quarter – 3PT In A Game Record Broken
Q4
The Blazers opened up the 4th with a 10-0 run in the first 1:29 of the quarter, forcing Kerr to call a timeout and get Klay Thompson back into the game.
Klay immediately went on a personal 7-0 run including a technical free throw after Portland coach Terry Stotts got upset with the referees with 9:33 left in the game.
Connaughton finally got Portland back on track with a left corner 3 — and tying the NBA record for combined 3 point makes.
Barnes sold an upfake for 2 free throws, splitting to make it 118-99 with 6:53 to play.
After a frantic, multi-chance offensive possession for the Warriors resulted in no points, Connaughton got in the lane for a high Curry-like runner to make it 118-101.
Drayman returned to the game and promptly bullied his way inside, grabbed his own miss and finished with a foul, converting the and-1 at the line.
Roberts then buried his 2nd three of the quarter to surpass the all-time NBA record for combined 3 point field goals made in a single game with 37 (19 for Portland; 18 for Warriors).
Mo split free throws, but did better than Vonleh who missed both of his freebies the next trip down. Drayman continued hot FT shooting converting two more and improving to 9-9 on the night to make it 124-104.
All the starters then exited the game before the Dubs went on to win 128-112 for their 47th straight home win.
Klay and Steph combined for 71 points, with Klay posting 37 in just over 31 minutes and a +35 in the box score. Draymond added 17 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists.
After allowing 51 to Damian Lillard in the 137-105 loss to Portland, the Oakland native finished with 17 points on 5-19 shooting.
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