ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The New Orleans Pelicans were at #Roaracle today for a day game, Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs Round 1 against the Golden State Warriors.
Jeff Withey was inactive for the Pelicans. The Warriors recalled Ognjen Kuzmic from Santa Cruz but listed him as inactive. David Lee was out with a lower back strain.
1ST QUARTER: Curry Leads Warriors To Double-Digit Lead
Both teams came out with a bit of the jitters. Anthony Davis lost the ball on the Pelican’s first possession, dribbling the ball right into Draymond Green‘s hands. But Klay Thompson turned the ball right back on a similar mis-dribble. Quincy Pondexter streaked down the court for an easy layup for the first points of the night.
Green was on-point with his non-stats contributions, getting a pass from Stephen Curry at the top but giving the ball right back to him upon noticing Davis had switched onto Curry, who then went in for a left side banker.
The nerves continued, as Eric Gordon made a bad pass, but after Thompson brought the ball up and swung the ball to Green, Steph stepped on the left sideline after another swing pass from Green.
Oracle was loud and chanting at every opportunity, and even the low-key Harrison Barnes felt some of that, mishandling his own dribble but getting it back.
The nerves seemed to calm down after Barnes drilled a trey, Andrew Bogut got a two-handed slam on a drive by Klay, delivering the alley-oop…
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…and Green once again noticed an advantage for Curry and threw him the ball and immediately set an on-ball pick so that Steph could nail the triple.
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Early on it was 10-4, Warriors, with 8:25 to go and Pelicans head coach Monty Williams took his first timeout as #Roaracle got loud.
Bogut helped out Thompson once more, getting a right-handed putback of a nice probe, drive and pop by Klay that went off rim.
Then Curry got multiple opportunities on switches and took his man down the lane. After an in-transition high-off-the-backboard scoop over Davis…
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…another drive by Curry was facilitated by a Bogut on-ball pick, although it was then answered by a Ryan Anderson triple from up top that cut the Warriors lead to 18-11 with 3:17 remaining.
After a Barnes triple from the right corner assisted by Green attacking in the middle, Steph then found himself iso’ed against Anderson, and crossed him over easily left to right for a layup.
Later, Curry had an iso versus Pelicans backup center Alexis Ajinca and did the same thing, getting to the hoop for a nice banker as Festus Ezeli cleared out the middle even with the diminutive Jrue Holiday switched on him.
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Ajinca answered back after Curry short-rimmed a pull-up three with less than 40 seconds to play, but Ezeli got fouled at the rim with 1.1 to play and pushed the Warriors first quarter lead back up to 28-13.
Curry led all scorers with 11 points. Barnes added 8 points, 4 rebounds, and Bogut also had 4 boards. No one on New Orleans had more than 3 points.
2ND QUARTER: Bench Unit Gives, Curry Takes
The bench unit yielded 8 straight points to start the second period. It all started with Ezeli muffing a pass to Ajinca, which resulted in a Norris Cole run-out dunk.
Then Thompson tried to turn baseline on a low left block post of Jrue Holiday, but Holiday reached in to knock the ball loose and the ball went out of bounds off Klay’s leg. Next, with Steve Kerr yanking Ezeli for Green earlier than Kerr would have liked, Cole took Thompson to the hole on the left side and the layup trickled in.
But Klay answered back with six straight points, getting an and-one as he took a long step down the right side of the lane to draw the foul as his righty banker went in, then draining a triple from the left wing, assisted by Green, after the Warriors pushed the ball following a missed turnaround by Anderson.
But Davis got a slip on a pick-and-roll with Cole, jammed it home with two hands, and Kerr called timeout with 8:24 and the Warriors’ lead cut to 34-25.
The Pelicans inched back as they started to hit outside shots, withstanding a Klay crossover on Gordon and lefty layup over the helping Davis, a lefty inside layup again over Davis by Draymond, a Green-to-Bogut alley-oop after Draymond led break rebounding a Davis falling fade-away miss, and Curry sneaking under the rim for a layup delivered by a Bogut laser pass.
After treys by Gordon’s bomb from the left elbow, rattling in, a Pondexter swish on the right wing assisted by Gordon, a swooping left baseline dunk by Davis, and a Pondexter three from the deep left wing, allowing Shaun Livingston to fly by, Golden State’s lead shrunk to 44-39 with 4:15 to go in the half.
But Pondexter got tangled up with Draymond on a rebound, the referees went to replay and assessed a technical on Pondexter, but Curry missed the free throw.
Still, it was up to Steph to increase the Warriors’ lead once more. Klay got a three out of a timeout, then Green stole a Davis dribble, reaching in, and ran a pick-and-roll in the early offense with Curry, freeing Steph to drive on Davis. Anderson fouled Curry at the rim and Steph’s and-one pulled the Dubs ahead, 55-39 with 1:34 to play.
After Davis got a finger roll to drop from the left side, Green missed a runner, but the ball hung on the rim long enough for Bogut to get there and slam home the putback.
Bogut then poked the ball away on a Holiday drive down the left side, Klay got the ball and outlet to Steph, who led the break with Davis chasing. The Pelicans star power forward couldn’t resist a last-second reach-in over Curry’s shoulder as Steph drew the contact and got the reverse lefty layup to drop.
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With 33.8 seconds remaining, that gave the Warriors a 59-41 lead.
Cole missed back-rim with 18 seconds left, Curry smelled blood and tried to crossover Pondexter multiple times, but decided not to attack, finding a slashing Leandro Barbosa, who made a layup at the buzzer.
However, the officials reviewed the play and Barbosa’s shot came after the red light, so Golden State took a 59-41 lead into halftime.
Curry led all scorers with 19 points on 8-for-15 field but just 1-for-6 downtown, while Thompson added 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting, 2-for-2 beyond the arc, and Barnes and Bogut chipped in 10 points apiece.
Davis led the Pelicans with 11 points on 4-for-9 field but only had 1 rebound.
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