The Golden State Warriors (63-14) were at Smoothie King Center tonight to face the New Orleans Pelicans (41-35), who are vying for the Western Conference’s eighth and final playoff spot.
Both teams were at full strength, contrary to the two previous meetings.
1ST QUARTER: Bogut Playing Well
The Warriors shooting early on was off, although their defense was on point. Anthony Davis made a poor pass that Harrison Barnes stole, but his fade-away on the ensuing possession, posting up the smaller Eric Gordon in the right block, was off the rim.
Andrew Bogut made a two-hand dunk on a slip to the rim assisted by Klay Thompson, then went down the left lane with a behind-the-back dribble on Omer Asik and a lefty flip shot went in, to Asik’s amazement.
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Bogut then continued his great play, getting a piece of Gordon’s left lane layup, but Stephen Curry missed a long two the other way. However, Bogut notched another statistic as he picked up a lost ball by Tyreke Evans on a bad dribble, brought it up court, and found Draymond Green trailing on the left wing for a trey.
Curry added a step-back deep two as he was switched onto by Asik later on…
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…and Barnes followed with a dribble-and-pop at the free throw line, but that was after two disconcerting plays for the Warriors: 1) Green picked up his second personal foul while lunging out on a Norris Cole dribble-and-fake-pop on the left side, and 2) Klay left his feet for a scoop and turned the ball over, extending his goose egg to nearly the first five minutes after scoring just 6 points two nights ago in San Antonio.
After having fouled Davis earlier on a spin-fade-away on the baseline, Green had to sit down with two personals. Marreese Speights checked in for him.
Curry had a nice finger roll in the lane where he hesitated for a moment before heading into the lane and creating space with a big dribble…
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…then Thompson finally got on the board with a sweet reverse layup with the right-hand going from the right baseline after Bogut swatted a Gordon layup attempt, but there were some miscues with the Warriors’ defense.
After already hitting two triples early on, Quincy Pondexter drew three foul shots on Klay as Thompson gave momentary help on guard penetration and was too late closing out. Pondexter did well to sell the call, however.
Gordon converted an and-one as Curry shifted too far over on two straight swing passes from the New Orleans perimeter, Bogut shaded too far off from Davis in showing his presence behind Curry as Norris Cole pounded the rock from the left wing, although “Unibrow” did well to cover a lot of ground in the process, slamming the big lob home with two hands.
After that highlight play by Davis, Bogut lost the ball on his baseline and got stuck, but Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout to get out of trouble and, little did they know, the break would help fuel a spurt.
On the “ATO” (after-timeout play), as has become a Golden State staple, Andre Iguodala scored a dunk, getting the next sequence off to a great start. Bogut followed that up with a tip rebound and a putback of a missed lefty layup by Leandro Barbosa.
Gordon got swatted in nearly the exact same spot by Bogut as last time, and Barbosa gave an old man’s veteran show-ball up-fake and fed Shaun Livingston for a two-handed dunk…
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…and Curry drilled a trey curling around a screen and receiving a pass from the top by Iguodala, to give the Warriors a 27-19 lead with 2.1 seconds remaining in the opening frame.
Pondexter led all scorers with 9 points, Curry had 7, and Bogut had 6. Asik and Davis had 4 rebounds each.
2ND QUARTER: Chef Curry Gets Cooking In The Bayou
David Lee started the second quarter and, matched up against 7’2″ Alexis Ajinca, got an offensive tip-in of a missed Livingston post-up fade to start the frame. Lee then closed out well on a missed Ryan Anderson trey and got an assist to a cutting Green, again against Ajinca. Lee would later get another putback versus Ajinca, picking up Iguodala’s missed triple from the left side.
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With 7:39 to go in the half, the Warriors held a 37-28 lead and Pelicans head coach Monty Williams called timeout.
New Orleans closed the gap a bit as Anderson hit a trey while trailing a play, Davis cocked away a slam dunk with Evans probing around the perimeter and delivering the pinpoint lob, although Barnes answered with a two-handed alley-oop jam assisted by Bogut as well.
But a Draymond trey from the left side, which made it 46-38 Golden State, and delivered with an overhead cross-court pass from the exact opposite right side by Curry, seemed to spark the Warriors.
The Pelicans erred as Barnes collected a miss jumper by Davis and, going to the left elbow, found Steph trailing for an easy three from the top.
Bogut then got his fifth block (!) of the half, altering the parabola of Asik’s hook shot, and on the other end, Asik found himself helplessly switched onto Curry. Steph toyed with the New Orleans center a bit before stepping back and drilling another triple from the top, shaded a bit to the right, to give Golden State a 52-38 lead all of a sudden.
At the end of the half, Curry topped that by crossing Cole four times before deciding to launch.
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With 7 seconds remaining, the ball found the bottom of the net and the Warriors took a 55-43 lead into halftime, as Davis’ three-point heave got tapped by Bogut for Bogut’s 7th blocked shot of the game.
Steph led all scorers with 16 points on 6-for-9 field, 4-for-4 downtown. Green chipped in 11 points and 6 rebounds, but Thompson was struggling at 1-for-6 shooting, 0-for-3 from beyond the arc.
Pondexter led the Pelicans with 11 points, while Davis added 6 points and 5 rebounds.
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