The Golden State Warriors started a six-game roadtrip at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN to face the Indiana Pacers. Stephen Curry was a late scratch, although left on the game roster as “active” — despite wearing street clothes on the bench after giving his “tweaked foot” a try during warmups — because James Michael McAdoo and Ognjen Kuzmic were on assignment with the Santa Cruz Warriors. Curry reportedly had hurt his foot in the game two nights ago against the San Antonio Spurs, although there was no mention of the injury during or after the game.
Of course, the Pacers were without their superstar as well. Paul George has still been in rehab with his broken leg, but recently expressed a desire to return to action next month.
The Pacers wore their throwback dark unis, so the Warriors were in their home whites as the official visiting team.
1ST QUARTER: Klay Knows
Shaun Livingston started in place of Curry and got the first bucket, but Klay Thompson knew he had to have a big game in Steph’s absence and got going early.
After an early shooting foul that gave Solomon Hill two made free throws, Thompson went on the offensive, scoring 13 of the next 18 Warriors points, with Draymond Green adding a triple and two free throws. Klay’s output was only once from long distance, while the others including high-degree-of-difficulty jumpers and turnarounds — one which was a hesitation-fadeaway — as well as four points from the charity stripe.
The Warriors took an early 16-10 lead with 6:01 to play Green’s three-pointer, which was also Bogut’s third assist, and Pacers head coach Frank Vogel took the game’s first timeout.
David Lee replaced Andrew Bogut at the 4:40 mark with Golden State up, 21-12, and immediately started putting up stats, posting 4 points on an efficient 2-for-3 from the field, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal.
The Warriors were playing solid defense as Green stripped David West and fed the explosive Leandro Barbosa for a layup. Then Thompson finally went cold with a missed three, but Lee got the offensive rebound as well as the eventual putback as Barbosa made a cut to the open middle, but missed the layup.
But the Pacers answered with a triple by CJ Miles and a running layup by CJ Watson and Golden State head coach Steve Kerr called timeout with 2:04 to play in the quarter, with the Warriors up, 28-21.
Lee played a role in the Dubs’ waning moments of the first frame, dishing to Thompson for a finish after rebounding a Barbosa missed layup, passing out to Andre Iguodala — whose shooting from beyond the arc remained on-point through the Spurs game two nights ago — for an open splash from downtown, after Barbosa hung in the air and found Lee at the last possible moment.
Lee then played “tic-tac-toe” of the three-point variety with Barbosa and Iguodala again, as Iguodala drained another one from downtown with 2.1 seconds to play in the quarter.
Without Curry, the Warriors scored 38 points in the first frame to take a 38-26 lead over the Pacers heading into the second quarter. Thompson led all scorers with 15 points on 5-for-9 field and Green added 5 points. The Warriors had 9 assists on 13 made field goals and were shooting 57% from the floor.
2ND QUARTER: Slow-Paced Discombobulation
Kerr made a surprise pick of Brandon Rush over Justin Holiday, perhaps because Rush was a former Pacer, to start the second quarter.
The Warriors’ bench unit did a good job of maintaining the double-digit buffer as Lee recorded another steal and Rush tallied a steal as well after he corralled a loose ball that was knocked out of Watson’s hands. Rush advanced the ball up to Iguodala who fed Barbosa for a right corner trey, making it 43-32 with 8:52 to play. The TV timeout would occur at the 8:05 mark with Golden State up, 43-34.
However, the Dubs quickly lost that lead. Rodney Stuckey had already gotten hot since the start of the quarter, scoring 11 points off the bench, but Watson added three free throws after being fouled beyond the arc by Barbosa and Luis Scola hit a turnaround jumper and a layup to cut the Warriors’ lead to four, 45-41, with 7:40 to play.
Green would get a beautiful swat of Scola, sending the big man’s scoop shot into the courtside seats, but Watson got a three to fall that gave Indiana its first lead of the game, 46-45, with 5:58 to play in the half.
After Scola’s finger roll matched a Bogut floater, Marreese Speights finally checked in with 3:21 to play and the Warriors down, 52-49.
Speights contributed immediately, although he ended the half 0-for-4 from the field, with an assist to Livingston for a dunk, and 3 out of 4 free throws, while Roy Hibbert made four free throws and Stuckey tallied four more points to give the Pacers a 60-57 lead at halftime.
The Warriors ended the half in ugly, slow-paced fashion, however, as during one sequence the shotclock was winding down, Speights had the ball slip out of his hands on a swing pass to the top, only to be scooped up by Green, who couldn’t get past his defender from the top, only to pass to Thompson at the last moment, who beat the shotclock buzzer with a one-legged try from beyond the arc on the left elbow, only to have the shot hit nothing but the top side of the backboard.
Still, the Warriors were fortunate only to be trailing by three points at the half. Thompson led all scorers with 17 points, but was shooting just 6-for-14 field and 1-for-6 from downtown, while Barbosa added 9 points and Iguodala 8 off the bench.
Stuckey led the Pacers with 15 off the bench and Watson had 12, also off the bench, as Scola and Hibbert chipped in 8 points apiece. The Indiana bench combined for 38 of their 57 first-half points.
Although the Warriors were 12-for-12 from the free throw line, they also shot 20-for-49 (40.8%) in Curry’s absence.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
