The Golden State Warriors (51-5) were at Amway Center to face the Orlando Magic (25-30).
The Warriors listed James McAdoo (toe) as questionable, while Festus Ezeli (knee surgery rehab) remained in the Bay Area. The Magic had no injuries to report.
1st Quarter – Steph, Meet Andy; Andy, Steph!
The Warriors got off to a good start as Andrew Bogut and Stephen Curry connected on two consecutive backdoor plays:
Beautiful backdoor bounce pass from @andrewbogut to @StephenCurry30 on @CSNAuthentic. pic.twitter.com/z0Q6sN7FVq
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) February 26, 2016
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Klay Thompson added a triple after Evan Fournier missed a shot, Curry tracked down the rebound, and outlet the ball perfectly to Klay in stride for the stop-and-pop from the left wing, in transition.
But Nikola Vucevic got on a roll and got a putback, then fed Aaron Gordon for three.
Draymond Green had a couple airballs on floaters attacking Vucevic, but came back with a two-handed slam dunk as Vucevic missed at the rim after spinning on Bogut, Steph advanced the ball and dished to Green in stride towards the hoop even before Draymond was looking.
With 6:45 to go, Magic head coach Scott Skiles,/strong> took a timeout as the Warriors trimmed their deficit to 15-12.
It didn’t take long for Curry to break the record for most consecutive games with a three-pointer, tying the game at 17-17 with 5:45 remaining, giving him 128 straight games with a made trey:
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But the Magic kept things close, as Elfrid Payton hit a triple, Steph hit another one, then Anderson Varejao came in.
Varejao made it look as if he’d been playing with the Warriors all season, as he found his Brazilian buddy Leandro Barbosa with a lead backdoor pass as Barbosa cut from the left baseline for an easy bucket.
Still, Payton answered with an “and-one” running banker against Curry, Green made his third turnover already by dribbling out of bounds as his dribble was as if he were caught between making a pass in the process (to an invisible cutter in the vicinity of the right baseline), and Payton made an upfake on Varejao and got a righty scoop past Curry.
But Barbosa got an early offense layup on the left baseline again after the made bucket, then played “tic-tac-toe” with Andre Iguodala, who found Steph for a short jumper on the left baseline.
Iguodala added a backdoor pass to Varejao running on the right baseline, who converted with a reverse layup, then on the other end, tipped a rebound to Harrison Barnes, who saved the ball from in front of the Magic’s bench to Curry, who later on the offensive sequence cut to the hole, lead bounce pass by Varejao, for an “and-one” on Jason Smith:
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Steph’s free throw made it 33-30 with 0.9 seconds left, giving him 15 points on the night on 6-for-8 field, as well as 93 points in the last nine quarters of play.
2nd Quarter – Warriors Not Able To Make Stops
Marreese Speights did well to keep the Golden State scoring going, with three buckets as Iguodala added a driving hook, but Shaun Livingston committed the Warriors’ tenth turnover.
Golden State still held a 42-41 lead when Curry and Green checked back in, the Warriors having their starting lineup in with 6:15 to go in the half.
Curry went to Bogut for an alley-oop out of a timeout shortly thereafter…
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…Klay swished a catch-and-shoot jumper from the left elbow, and Steph added a three off a handoff to make it 50-47, Warriors, with 3:59 left:
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But Evan Fournier reached 17 points scored on a steady diet of threes and free throws to keep the Magic on pace with the Warriors.
Victor Oladipo got a three to trickle in after kissing the rim and backboard, giving the Magic a 59-53 buffer, but Curry came back with this long fadeaway:
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Gordon got a putback on a nice spin by Vucevic on a high pinch versus Green, wherein Iguodala came over to help, so Golden State was still having trouble defending the rim, but Steph went with this nifty move against Vucevic, high off the backboard:
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The Warriors couldn’t capitalize on a traveling violation by Fournier, as Curry and Thompson missed threes, and Oladipo ended up making a nice swooping lefty layup with 13.6 to go.
Green came back with a similar lefty past Vucevic, and the Magic held a 63-59 lead at halftime. Curry tallied 22 points on 9-for-12 shooting, to go along with 5 assists, but along with Fournier’s 17, Oladipo added 12 and Vucevic 11 and 5 rebounds.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @davidisdoing)
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