CHESAPEAKE ENERGY ARENA, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK — Two nights after staving off elimination from the 2016 Western Conference Finals with a win at home in Game 5, the Golden State Warriors were back at OKC for Game 6 against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Warriors were without James McAdoo (inactive) and Kevon Looney (left hip surgery).
1st Quarter – Messy
The Warriors couldn’t grab a rebound after the THunder got the tip, but escape relatively unscathed as OKC put up some nervous shots. But Golden State gave the ball right back on two occasions, with Kevin Durant missing, getting his own rebound, and back-ironing the follow-up attempt, only to have Stephen Curry get picked from behind by Andre Roberson in transition at half court.
Later, Draymond Green got a rebound of a Durant missed, then threw it away, and the Warriors escaped a crowd feeding frenzy as Durant missed a corner three right after that.
But the Warriors stayed strong on offense, as Curry played “tic-tac-toe” with Green to get Andrew Bogut a cutting slam dunk…
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…Bogut also got an early tap out offensive board, plus a tip-in bucket on the same possession, but that was off a missed open three by Steph and a point-blank runner off bank too hard by Klay Thompson.
Curry missed again from the elbow, but Klay got a side-step three versus Steven Adams from a baseline out-of-bounds play:
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Steph then got a catch on a cut, but with Durant waiting on the help, Curry traveled, caught between a shot and a dribble as he upfaked, then dribbled illegally in one motion, but Bogut stopped Russell Westbrook at the rim, Durant shot an airball three trying to draw contact, and Thompson scored a reverse layup to go up, 12-9, as OKC head coach Billy Donovan called the first timeout with 6:15 remainng.
Out of the timeout, Thompson got blocked…
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…then missed badly on the baseline over Dion Waiters, who played some good, tough physical defense. Westbrook later came back again with a pull-up over Klay, and the Thunder had their largest lead so far, 18-12.
But Thompson answered with a righty layup after up-faking Ibaka, absorbing the contact at the rim, Westbrook missed a three, and Steph raced up court, nearly lost the ball, continued his dribble, although the crowd was upset there was no call, and found Draymond in the right corner for three.
Kerr went “small-ball” by inserting Shaun Livingston and Adams ended up covering Iguodala, but Harrison Barnes lost the ball trying to power against that tough defense from Waiters. That was Golden State’s fifth turnover.
Waiters eventually scored after an offensive rebound of a missed three by Durant, swishing from downtown on the right wing, but Barnes atoned and got a corner three as the defense sagged towards Curry, who was nearby.
That halved the OKC lead to 23-20, Waiters missed, then Curry drew a second reach-in foul on Adams, but LIvingston couldn’t score over Waiters and Durant got fouled by Iguodala with 4.9 seconds on the iso to end the quarter. After that, Randy Foye got picked by Green and Marreese Speights’ half court heave fell short.
2nd Quarter – Dubs Manage To Keep Things Close
To start the second stanza, the Warriors missed on three consecutive possessions, as Iguodala missed from deep, Speights inside, although he did give a nice upfake, and Barnes missed from the left corner.
Meanwhile, Enes Kanter hit a jumper, then connected over Livingston inside on a switch, and Durant powered his way through on the right side. Kerr called timeout with 10:16 to play as OKC jumped ahead, 29-20.
Out of the timeout, Curry finally splashed on a handoff via Bogut…
Chef Curry ? https://t.co/hmQ9Kqca1E
— NBA TV (@NBATV) May 29, 2016
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…but Steph gambled on the swing pass and Andre Roberson went backdoor, catching the pass from Westbrook for a dunk.
Later, Curry upfaked Roberson, the ref passed on whistling the bump, and Steph got caught between a rock and a hard place in the trees and lost the ball, his third turnover, with no one cutting.
Iguodala got a nice spin move inside against Roberson, but Adams came back with a massive one-hand dunk on a roll and pick with Durant, in the face of Draymond.
That put OKC up, 37-28, then Curry couldn’t answer, hitting back iron on a catch-and-shoot, and Durant went midpost against Green and swished a fade-away.
Iguodala then cut and Draymond gave him a pass, but it was too high, for yet another turnover. Kerr called timeout to regroup the troops, down 39-28 with 4:55 left.
After the timeout, Durant went mid-post again and scored a runner, this time over Barnes, and after the crowd got upset as Durant pulled Bogut away on a pick for Curry, Klay hit a catch-and-swish from the left arc.
Westbrook missed a triple, then Steph seemingly stumbled and lost the ball with Westbrook reaching in, but the refs gave the ball back to the Warriors, baseline out of bounds.
Thompson hit another triple as he caught the ball, upfaked Waiters, and still drilled the shot in Waiters’ face.
Westbrook missed again, Bogut and Klay converged on the rebound versus Adams, but Bogut got whistled, although it was only his first personal. Donovan took a timeout to draw something up, still leading 41-34, with 3:18 remaining.
Durant got a dunk out of the timeout on a feed by Westbrook, but Curry, who couldn’t get open on a body check by Adams down low trying to free himself from Westbrook, managed to sneak to the corner and draw three fouls shot on a slap of the wrist by a closing Westbrook.
Steph committed his third turnover after rebounding a missed three by Klay, and in transition, Bogut thought he fouled Westbrook on the ground, but the referee gave three shots to Westbrook, who missed two of them.
Shortly thereafter, Ibaka missed a three, and Curry found Klay in transition for a three at the left arc in rhythm:
Klay splashes his 4th triple of the half on TNT! #NBARapidReplay #WARRIORSvTHUNDER https://t.co/UqKvdWrD1A
— NBA (@NBA) May 29, 2016
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Amazingly, the Warriors were down just four points, 44-40, with 2:06 to play.
After an off-ball foul by Iguodala on Durant, which added two more points to OKC’s total, Roberson hacked Bogut to intentionally put him on the line and Bogut missed the first, but made the second.
Adams got the ball near the bucket and the Warriors did what they could against the trees, with Bogut getting a block, but Durant eventually got in the mix and scored a lay-in with a foul by Green.
Barnes, who had come in for Bogut, lost the ball on the next possession, but Durant was short at the rim, and Roberson ended up fouling Iguodala in transition. Iguodala made the first, missed the second, and Green was called for too much physicality against Ibaka on the rebound.
Ibaka missed both throws, with Anderson Varejao entering for Green, and Steph brought the Warriors to within four points again as he managed to get a switch with Ibaka and crossed him over 30 feet from the hoop on the deep right wing:
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With 55 seconds to go, OKC was up, 49-45.
Durant shot a three from the top that barely grazed the rim, but Ibaka cleaned up the mess with a slam dunk, getting past Barnes.
Curry manufactured a foul on a reverse layup against Ibaka, with the crowd not agreeing with the call, but Steph uncharacteristically missed both free throws, Waiters got the rebound, and Westbrook won the foot race to the other hoop, scoring yet another streaking layup.
Curry initiated the offense, got met with a double-team, decided not to hit Varejao cutting, but then firing a pass behind him. Luckily, Iguodala was on the opposite wing to corral the pass, and with Steph momentarily freeing himself from Waiters on the same left side, eventually Iguodala found Barnes on the right wing.
Barnes bolted past Ibaka for a layup, with harm from Kanter, and his “and-one” salvaged the half, 53-48, after Westbrook missed a shot near the buzzer:
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Curry fired from the OKC three-point line on the rebound, but it would not have counted.
OKC got 27 points combined from Durant and Westbrook, with Ibaka as the third weapon tonight, with 12 points.
Klay led the Warriors with 16 points on 6-for-15 field and 4-for-8 downtown, while Curry had just 9 points, but racked up 7 rebounds and 5 assists. Draymond had 7 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 assists as Golden State shot an anemic 16-for-44 (36.4%). Also, OKC shot just 2-for-14 from beyond the arc.
Although the Thunder racked up 8 offensive rebounds, the Warriors actually outrebounded OKC, 26-25. The Warriors, however, committed 9 turnovers.
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