This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Toronto Raptors. The Warriors took a 66-53 lead into halftime.
Q3 – Steph Erases Struggles
Klay Thompson finally broke out of his shell and hit two treys in a row, one assisted by Kevin Durant and the other by Draymond Green.
Then Stephen Curry got a steal and fed Durant for the breakaway slam:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Raptors head coach Dwane Casey took a timeout as the Warriors took a 74-55 lead with 10:30 remaining.
But Klay went cold, missing two treys, and Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan chipped away at the lead to pull to within 74-61 after a Lowry triple.
Zaza Pachulia picked up his fourth personal and Golden State head coach Steve Kerr brought in JaVale McGee.
McGee blew an alley-oop, but then redeemed himself, thanks to an offensive rebound by Thompson. However, we might still see JaVale on TNT’s #ShaqtinAFool:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
The Raptors got as close as 89-84 as Terrence Ross made a three, Curry came back with a jumper, but Pascal Siakam got a monster jam inside.
Steph answered the call with a three-pointer to put the Warriors back up by eight points…
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
…then after free throws by DeRozan, drilled another one.
The Golden State defense held Toronto to no shot before the buzzer, and the Warriors took a 95-86 lead into the final frame. Curry was up to 31 points and 7 assists.
Q4 – As The Ankle Turns, Oops Knee Bangs
Patrick Patterson got the Raptors off on the right foot with a triple from the right wing after KD missed a turnaround jumper.
Andre Iguodala added a slam on the break after a David West steal…
David West hasn't exactly excelled defensively this year, but he still can do things like this pic.twitter.com/ltP6uyDl35
— Drew Shiller (@DrewShiller) November 17, 2016
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
…but another Patterson trey kept Toronto within striking range, 101-91.
But Iguodala rose up again with a catch-and-shoot triple from the left corner assisted by Durant, and Klay Thompson played “tic-tac-toe” with Shaun Livingston to find West on the cut.
Out of a TV timeout, Durant hit a floater, then Livingston went down the lane with the harm for an “and-one”, Iguodala’s sixth assist, and Kerr put Curry and Green back in, while Durant and Thompson sat, to go along with Livingston, Patrick McCaw, and West on the floor.
McCaw took some impressive steps inside the lane and fed West with a behind-the-head pass.
Siakam then missed a jumper over a switched Curry, and Steph appeared to tweak an ankle in the process, limping to the front court. Kerr called timeout to have his trainers take a look, but Curry was back out on the floor after the timeout.
Steph seemed to have trouble, missing a jumper, then getting called for a slightly gimpy baseline drive with a jump stop that didn’t land on both feet.
But Livingston came through with a steal of a bad cross-court pass, a lead pass to a streaking McCaw went behind McCaw, but Livingston’s long arm got the ball back and fed the rookie from the left corner for a calm, cool swish, to put the Warriors up, 116-100 with 4:27 remaining.
Lowry then went strong left baseline, lost the ball, and Siakam picked it up, only to get swatted by McCaw on the putback attempt. Curry ended up getting fouled and hit two free throws.
McCaw got a steal on a lost ball dribble, but Draymond missed a layup and DeRozan hit a three.
Green made a bad pass, Steph missed a “nail-in-the-coffin” triple attempt from up top, and Lowry drew a foul on Durant on a drive and, with 3:11 to play, Golden State held a 118-105 lead.
After another Green missed layup, DeRozan hit more free throws, but Durant came back and drilled a dribble-and-pop jumper from the top:
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
Steph missed twice more, although his limp was now gone, with the replays showing he had banged knees instead of tweaked an ankle, and after a pretty DeRozan up-and-under lefty scoop…
https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js
…Cory Joseph upfaked past Draymond and drew another whistle, with Green barely touching him.
Luckily for the Warriors, Joseph missed the layup, so instead of a two-possession game, the Raptors were down, 120-113 and running out of time with just 1:30 to go.
After a backdoor cut where Thompson got fouled, Ross made things interesting with a swish from way out at the top of the arc, and the Warriors couldn’t answer as McCaw’s up-pass to Durant got deflected and KD ended up shooting a running prayer at the shot clock buzzer.
Casey called a timeout, but this time Ross bricked a trey. Curry dribbled into trouble, though, and a jump ball was forced by Ross.
But Green stole the jump, anticipating where Ross tipped the ball, and with 14.3 seconds left, Durant hit one of two throws to maintain a lead of seven.
The game ended on a whimper as the refs continued to have no issues blowing their whistles, as Ross got awarded three free throws, and Ross drew another foul on Curry on a runner.
Kerr was flabbergasted and stood up from the bench to yell, “Can we just play basketball?” to the officials.
The Raptors ended the game with an astounding 41 free throws attempted and the game finally ended with a 127-121 final score.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @aforsythsells)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
