This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the New Orleans Pelicans.
The Pelicans held a 65-58 lead at halftime.
Q3: Mardi Gras!
The Warriors started off the second half with two straight buckets as as Klay Thompson flare cut drew the defense away from JaVale McGee for an alley-oop from Stephen Curry…
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…then Kevin Durant made an unstoppable one-foot runner:
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But the teams traded baskets after that. Curry got an “and-one” layup against Buddy Hield, then Anthony Davis countered with his own “and-one” past Draymond Green and McGee’s help.
Thompson got swatted on an attack into Alexis Ajinca, Davis his a jumper over McGee, and the Pelicans went back up, 72-65.
Steph then tried an entry pass to Green, Draymond couldn’t catch it cleanly, but his long paws tracked the ball down and Curry got free on the left wing for a triple on a broken play:
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Later, Green drove on Ajinca, but he got blocked. However, Steph deflected an up-pass from Jrue Holiday, forcing a turnover, and Draymond eventually got a layup to close the gap to 74-70 with 9:04 remaining as Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry called timeout.
Out of the timeout, Green stripped Davis for a steal, and Steph ran pick-and-roll on the right wing with McGee to pull-up for a splash:
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Later, Draymond got blocked by “The Flying Frenchman” (Ajinca) again, but Durant got fouled on an inbound, hit the single free throw penalty for that, and Steph lobbed to JaVale on the side inbound after the violation, and the Warriors took a 76-74 lead.
It pushed to 79-74 after Durant got fouled on a reviewed play by Ajinca, the Pelicans big man hitting him with the shoulder bump as Davis drilled a corner triple, negating the three…
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…which was followed by a zinger of a pass from Green in the post out to KD on the opposite wing.
Curry then pivoted for a long two, reminiscent of Klay’s pivot when he scored 60 points last week at home…
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…then got a high-five from former Warriors assistant coach Darren Erman!
Steph out here giving high-fives to the opposing team's coach 😂😭 pic.twitter.com/FSIKcLI4iz
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 14, 2016
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After that, Durant got a dunk in the lane via Curry…
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…and Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry took a timeout to stop the bleeding as the Warriors moved ahead, 83-75.
To close out the quarter, KD got another dunk on some crazy passes from Steph to Draymond…
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…then Ian Clark came in and hit a catch-and-shoot from the left corner that was a high pass he had to snag from Green, Langston Galloway hit his fifth trey of the night, and Durant drew a three beyond the arc and nailed all three from the charity stripe.
Later, KD got a trackdown block of E’Twaun Moore…
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…and Thompson finally scored as he boarded a missed three by Clark and got fouled.
But with 14 seconds to play, Tim Frazier pulled up from downtown on a pick-and-roll with Davis, Clark got a runner in the paint blocked by “Uni-Brow”, and the Warriors took a 95-94 lead into the final frame.
Q4: DPOY
The final quarter continued to be a highlight reel, as Durant got a dunk…
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…Curry made a crazy shot from distance in his favorite New Orleans corner…
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…and with 2:58 left, the Warriors held a slim 109-108 lead as Gentry called a timeout.
Out of the timeout, Green displayed his DPOY candidacy with a steal of Jrue Holiday, then Steph displayed some trickery on Davis:
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Draymond grabbed a missed three by Frazier, giving him his first triple-double of the season, but both Durant and Curry missed fade-aways short even as Green grabbed another offensive board in the process.
With 45.5 seconds remaining, Gentry took another timeout with the game deadlocked at with no scoring, still at 111-108.
Out of the timeout, Gentry had Davis run a pick-and-roll to force Thompson to guard Davis in the paint, but KD helped out and swatted “Uni-Brow”…
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AD MEET KD!!!! #LetsGoWarriorsLive pic.twitter.com/OQnqYPdasX
— #ReadyPrayFight (@ZionBenHannibal) December 14, 2016
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…but the Warriors just couldn’t deliver the knockout punch as Durant went short on a long jumper over Davis.
With 14.9 seconds to play, Gentry called another timeout and Golden State considered a foul to put New Orleans on the line to avoid a three-pointer to tie.
The only problem was, Klay took a foul with 13.4 seconds remaining, too much time left.
Holiday went to the line, made the first free throw, but missed the second. Moore tracked down the loose ball, Davis posted up Green on the left block, but Draymond knocked the ball out with just 2.3 seconds to go:
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Davis drew a technical in the process, but Steph missed the free throw.
With 1.4 seconds to go on the side-out, Draymond got fouled, made both free throws, Galloway missed an academic triple at the buzzer, and the Warriors escaped with a 113-109 victory.
Green finished the game with 12 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. Curry tallied 30 points on 11-for-23 and 5-for-9 downtown as well as 7 assists. Durant was 10-for-19 shooting for 27 points, Klay had a quiet 17 points, and Iguodala had 9 rebounds, while David West collected 3 assists in just 12 minutes of play, both off the bench.
The Pelicans were led by Davis with 28 points, 8 rebounds, 5 blocks, but also 6 turnovers. Galloway sparked New Orleans with 20 points off the bench.
Golden State (22-4) now heads home and will face the Knicks in two nights.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account @nawlanscaleb)
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