This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Charlotte Hornets.
The Warriors held a 53-47 lead at halftime.
Q3: Kemba Presents All-Star Case
Klay Thompson hit a cutting layup high off the right board, assisted by Zaza Pachulia, but the Hornets started to beast the Warriors on the offensive boards, and Michael Kidd-Gilchrist hit a catch-and-shoot from the right side after Pachulia got called for a foul on a missed Kemba Walker three, then Marvin Williams went right baseline and Roy Hibbert tapped in the putback.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr took a timeout, but Kevin Durant threw the ball away, forcing an entry pass that Williams easily stole, and Nicolas Batum ended a couple empty sequences with a pivoting triple, prompting Kerr to call a twenty-second timeout as the Hornets took the lead, 58-55, with 9:49 remaining.
Out of the timeout, KD went down the left side for a lay-in, but Batum was feeling it and hit another trey, then drew a push-off on Durant at the other end.
Draymond Green put an end to the mini-momentum, however, getting a bucket at rim after playing hand-off with Stephen Curry, but Batum hit again off one leg fading away, to take a 68-59 lead for Charlotte, but Thompson came back in transition with a swish from the left arc.
Walker answered yet again, hitting a catch-and-shoot from the right arc, MKG got another physics-defying jumper to fall, but Steph returned the favor with an open triple up top, initiated by a Durant drive and a pass out to Green in the corner.
Hornets head coach Steve Clifford didn’t like how open Curry was and called timeout as the Warriors cut the Hornets’ lead to 73-66 with 4:52 to play.
JaVale McGee came in and got a two-hand jam off the bat, fed by Curry after he turned the corner…
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But Walker once again put an end to the momentum as he got a hesi to go past Steph, which froze JaVale as well.
Curry then went pick-and-roll and ended up with a nice, hanging reverse layup, then Kerr re-inserted James McAdoo after a strong first half showing, and McAdoo tapped the ball out on a Batum dribble, leading to a fast break with Green headed to the free throw line.
Draymond then made his presence known on defense, blocking Kaminsky, then Hawes…
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McAdoo continued his great contributions as Green drove, found Andre Iguodala in the corner, who found Patrick McCaw on the wing. McCaw up-faked, went inside, dished to McAdoo, who missed, but banked in a tapped offensive rebound.
However, McCaw fouled Walker from the arc with just 1.5 seconds left and, after the three made free throws and a three-quarter-court heave that rattled off the board no good by Curry, the Hornets took an 80-75 lead into the final frame.
Q4: KD Unstoppable
The Warriors drew three team fouls in the early going to chip away at the lead, but Kidd-Gilchrist continued to belie his terrible shooting form and hit another jumper before Shaun Livingston found McAdoo wide open down low for a bucket, prompting Clifford to call timeout as Golden State took an 83-82 lead with 9:30 remaining.
Out of the timeout, Hawes drew Draymond’s fourth personal, McAdoo gave the Warriors an extra possession by hustling versus Hawes on an offensive board, and Durant eventually got an early-offense righty scoop drive, lulling Hawes to sleep on a hesitation, after Ramon Sessions smoked a layup.
But at the other end, Marco Belinelli came up on a curl, pivoted, flailed as Klay contested, and drew a whistle by veteran official Ken Mauer.
Kerr was upset, but Thompson even more so, as Belinelli had kicked a leg out and hit Klay in the process.
So Belinelli hit the technical plus three free throws and the Hornets turned an 85-85 tie into an 89-85 lead.
Livingston came back with a rattling jumper from the right baseline, though, but fouled Belinelli from the right arc this time, on a more obvious call, and three more free throws gave Charlotte a 92-87 lead with 7:19 to play.
Durant then turned it up on the offensive end, wheeling around screens in the paint for a catch from Livingston, then drew six straight free throws before trickling in a catch-and-shoot.
During that time, Kerr inserted the “Death Lineup” with Livingston, then Iguodala, and the Warriors regained the lead, 99-96, with 4:08 to go, including this lefty drive by Curry after an errant pass by Green:
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[protected-iframe id=”e75f3e5c1fdeafd911f1bb0a75ab8fc1-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F824458091131330561″ width=”360″ height=”280″ frameborder=”0″]Out of the timeout, Williams hit a long two and Walker got a nice and-one against Livingston, those buckets sandwiched around another Durant dribble-and-pop, and the Hornets were still within striking distance, down 104-101 with 2:53 remaining.
Steph then drove on Kemba, drew a reach-in but no call, and fed KD on the baseline. Durant drilled the catch-and-shoot, thanks to a wide pick by Green, and the Hornets were down five, running out of time.
Draymond then got switched onto Walker, who once again used a “hesi” drive, but Green tapped the ball out, went on the break, but got blocked from behind by MKG with no call. Klay got the inbound and was fouled, hitting two more from the charity stripe, then got a steal at the other end and threw Draymond a touchdown pass for the dunk.
That was the nail on Charlotte’s coffin and Clifford called another timeout as Golden State put a stranglehold on with a 110-101 lead with just 1:50 to play.
Williams couldn’t tap in a missed three by Batum, Green boarded the loose ball, and Steph found himself covered by Hawes. A pull-up from the right wing gave the Warriors a 113-101 lead with 1:08 to go, KD got his fourth blocked shot at the other end as he turned away Batum’s catch in the paint.
Curry missed a hashmark-range triple after nearly dribbling out the shot clock, the Kemba got a meaningless scoop past Steph, who crazily attempted to take a charge with twelve seconds to go, and Green dribbled out the ball as Golden State (39-7) defeated Charlotte, 113-103.
The Warriors will finally head home after the four-game road trip, take a day off, practice in two days, and face the Clippers at home in three nights.
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(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @koolerthanyou83)
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