The Golden State Warriors (21-0) were at Barclays Center to face the Brooklyn Nets (5-14).
Andrew Bogut returned to the Warriors’ lineup, but Harrison Barnes remained out with a sprained ankle. Rondae-Hollis Jefferson was a late scratch for the Nets, having injured himself in practice yesterday.
1st Quarter – Klay Gets Dubs Off On The Right Track
The Warriors got off on the right foot, thanks to Klay Thompson’s early hot shooting.
He started the game with a pivot/spin fade-away in the paint against Bojan Bogdanovic, who got the start for Hollis-Jefferson.
Jarrett Jack missed a jumper, Draymond Green pushed the ball up, and found Thompson on the right wing for a triple.
Jack missed again and Green found Klay again for three in early offense and the Warriors had an early 9-0 lead as Nets head coach Lionel Hollins called timeout with 9:47 to play.
Incredibly, Stephen Curry missed both free throws after getting fouled by Brook Lopez in the paint, but Curry hit from downtown from the left side as Thompson lofted a lob into Andrew Bogut and Jack inexplicably double-teamed him from the weak side, leaving Steph wide open as Bogut got the easy assist:
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Shaun Livingston celebrated on the bench:
S Dot celebration! #LetsGoWarriorsLive pic.twitter.com/aJqSKkTakz
— GSWdelivery (@GSWdelivery) December 6, 2015
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Green added a runout dunk after stealing a Jack bad pass…
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…Bogut swatted Thaddeus Young, and Curry scored on a dribble drive down the left side of the lane from a side out of bounds, with Klay providing the screen to make that happen. Draymond picked up his fourth assist of the night.
Steph was fouled by Thomas Robinson on the help, but Curry actually missed his free throw, his third consecutive miss from the charity stripe!
Green followed that up with a floater down the lane assisted by Thompson, then Curry cut down the lane unmolested and Andre Iguodala fed him with a pretty bounced pass…
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…and the Warriors stretched their lead to 25-8 with 2:44 to go. Hollins called another timeout and Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton used the opportunity to bring in Shaun Livingston for Curry — Steph usually plays the entire first quarter.
Festus Ezeli also came in for Bogut and made an immediate impact, getting an “and-one” from Green, although Ezeli missed the free throw badly off the backboard.
Livingston fed Festus with a laser pass on a slip and Ezeli’s two-hand jam gave Golden State a commanding 30-13 lead.
Festus added a swat of a Jack drive, but the quarter ended with Nets backup point guard Shane Larkin splitting through Thompson on a pick-and-roll and drawing the “and-one” foul on Ezeli.
The Warriors took a 30-16 lead at the end of the first quarter.
2nd Quarter – Sloppiness
To start the second quarter, the bench unit did a good job of maintaining a double-digit lead as Ezeli got bucket inside, Livingston made an impressive turnaround fade-away jumper, Marreese Speights made a jumper, and Leandro Barbosa drilled a three.
But after Barbosa got picked by Markel Brown for a runout layup, Green and Curry came back in the game with 6:32 to go in the half and the Warriors up, 39-29.
Steph then went pick-and-roll with Draymond, found Green on the slip, who took a couple dribbles inside the paint and fed Iguodala for the easy two-handed dunk with the numbers in favor of the Warriors.
Green added an “and-one” as he got iso’ed on the high post against Young and took him strong down the left side with a spin, then Draymond hit a triple from the top.
But Shane Larkin hung in there, getting a layup past Curry, got answered by Thompson who used his body to create space with a layup over Markel Brown.
Thaddeus Young struck back with a lefty hook, Curry crossed Larkin over and got a floater to trickle in.
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Then Klay added three more as Steph brought a missed three by Larkin upcourt, found Brandon Rush on the left wing, who found Thompson in the left corner for three.
Curry got a pull-up three to rattle in, but Young spun on the right baseline against Klay and scored.
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Then, a bout of lunacy ensued Curry started an ugly sequence by both teams with a lost ball to Brown, but the Nets missed a layup, Green threw the ball away in the paint while attacking the other way, and Brown ended the mess with a dunk.
Then Curry’s inbound sling shot attempt at a long pass to Iguodala resulted in an easy steal for Brown, leading to an easy Young layup.
Making matters worse, Thompson blew a layup down the lane, Jack found Joe Johnson in the left corner for a swish trey, and just like that, the Nets had pulled to within 57-54 at the break as Iguodala missed a desperation heave at the buzzer.
Thompson led all scorers with 17 and Young had 14 for the Nets, but Curry only had 6 shots which yielded 12 points.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @teemoethy)
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