Golden State Warriors Summer League 2014 Recap: Game 5 vs Milwaukee Bucks (Photo: Ryan Brown | Lets Go Warriors Instagram)
The Golden State Warriors game dropped their final Las Vegas Summer League game vs the Milwaukee Bucks by a final of 79-74, completed their time at UNLV with a 2-3 record after losing the final 3 games.
The Warriors made two changes to the starting lineup and players like Nemanja Nedovic and Justin Holiday played less than 10 minutes each, as head coach Steve Kerr reached deeper into his bench in his last opportunity to give everyone some playing time.
It took a while for the Warriors to settle in before executing better in the second half, when their youthful exuberance started settling down into bonafide execution.
Kerr said he was still impressed by what some of the guys who hadn’t played much previously were able to contribute.
“We wanted to get everybody some playing time today. There were 4 or 5 guys who had hardly played this week,” Kerr said. “Obviously, it threw us off in the first half and we couldn’t get anything going, but they showed who they were in the second half.”
After going down 45-21 after one half, the Dubs managed 53 points in the second half, cutting the lead to just 3 before finally running out of time.
Kiwi Gardner was key to sparking the Warriors’ late run, and really got the crowd into it at the very end of the third quarter, scoring 7 consecutive points without a miss as MVP chants rang throughout the arena.
Gardner, who is 5’7″ and a Bay Area local, is always a popular player among fans.
“I was trying to get into a rhythm and a flow, ” Gardner said. “It’s a pretty surreal feeling to be out there and actually getting up and down and make a couple plays. It was fun.”
Despite being the first Warrior to really find a scoring groove, Gardner credited teammates Aaron Craft and Walt Lemon, Jr with setting up the team’s offense better in the second half.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say I led the charge,” Gardner said. “Craft and Walt Lemon came in the 2nd half when we were down and really picked up the energy and got everybody going so I just played off them.
Craft and Lemon led an outstanding thirty-one point fourth quarter, and nearly sent the Warriors off with a big win. Even despite shooting four for thirty-one from the three point line and sixteen for thirty from the foul line.
In just 16:46 of action on the court Craft had an impressive stat line of 10 points on 50% shooting, a made three, 3 for 3 from the free throw line, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals.
Lemon had just one assist, but also picked up 2 steals scored 6 points and helped facilitate better ball movement in the 3rd and 4th quarters.
Jabari Parker did a lot of the Bucks’ first half damage, finishing the game with 20 points and 15 rebounds.
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