The Golden State Warriors (36-7) were in Salt Lake City, UT, at EnergySolutions Arena to face the big frontline of the Utah Jazz (16-30).
Festus Ezeli was on rehab assignment and coming off the bench for the D-League Santa Cruz Warriors, but Andrew Bogut was back from missing the Chicago Bulls overtime loss three nights ago, when he left the game right before tipoff due to the flu. James McAdoo, who was recently signed to a 10-day contract with the Golden State team, returned to the D-League Warriors.
1ST QUARTER: Blah
Bogut got off to a good start on defense, although later as the game got going, it looked as if remnants of the flu lingered. Against Derrick Favors, Bogut forced an airball. Against Enes Kanter, Bogut forced a bricked reverse layup.
The game started off even as Kanter got a putback of a missed layup by Gordon Hayward, Klay Thompson had a beautiful left-handed take where he warded off Kanter with his right arm, but Jazz swingman Enes Kanter caught fire with a long two and a trey.
Stephen Curry had a blinding behind-the-back crossover that will be, unfortunately, easily forgotten, as Favors blocked Curry’s layup.
Harrison Barnes even had a nice Jordan-esque play where, in early offense transition, he crossed over his man twice and went strong for the lay-in.
Meanwhile, Draymond Green had a nice block on Kanter as Kanter tried to spin on Green baseline in the post.
But, once again, turnovers hurt the Warriors. Thompson dribbled off his help defender’s foot, Green made a bad pass to a cutting Curry, and Bogut’s soft pass back up top intended for Curry resulted in a steal and run-out dunk by Hayward.
The Jazz took advantage of their imposing frontline and had four offensive rebounds early, as compared to four total rebounds for Golden State. Utah took an early 17-8 lead with 4:49 to play in the first frame. The Jazz also had 9 points off 4 Warriors turnovers.
To make matters worse, the Dubs were still scoreless from beyond the arc. With the 13 missed treys from the second half of the Bulls game three nights ago, the Warriors added three more misses from downtown.
After Andre Iguodala subbed in for Barnes, a Curry teardrop from the left side broke a Utah 9-0 run. Iguodala was an instant impact on defense, getting a steal and taking Ingles on a double-crossover near the hoop.
David Lee also made an instant impact, getting an offensive rebound and delivering an assist to Justin Holiday from the right corner for a deep two.
But the Warriors couldn’t gain any momentum as Holiday missed a point-blank shot and the Warriors were on defense for the waning moments of the first quarter. However, Iguodala deflected a pass, Curry retrieved the loose ball, and fed Andre for the run-out dunk, keeping the Jazz within striking distance as the Warriors trailed, 23-19, heading into the second period.
Hayward had missed a shot at the buzzer that trickled out. Kanter tipped the ball in, but that was clearly after the buzzer sounded. Curry led the Warriors with a quiet 8 points. Hayward also had 8.
2ND QUARTER: Trevor Booker?!
A short Iguodala fade-away from deep in the right post trimmed the Jazz lead to 23-21 and got #DubNation excited on Twitter, but little did they know, that 2-point deficit would be as close as the Warriors would come throughout the entire quarter.
With the bench unit in, Utah stretched their lead to 39-27 as Shaun Livingston, Leandro Barbosa, Iguodala, Lee, and Marreese Speights combined to go 3-for-8 from the field with 2 turnovers.
However, after Bogut and Thompson subbed back in, Livingston got off this monstrous in-transition dunk:
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Jazz head coach Quin Snyder called timeout in anticipation of the tide shifting, and it paid off. Out of the timeout, point guard Trey Burke nailed a triple, Hayward drilled a jumper in Bogut’s eye, although it was pretty good help defense by Bogut.
Plays weren’t going the Warriors’ way, such as Barnes missing a wide-open three-pointer, Curry getting the offensive rebound, and as the ball got rotated around to Bogut then back to Barnes, Barnes threw it away, forcing Green to foul to stop the transition by Utah. Golden State was already in the bonus, and Ingles made one-of-two to push the Jazz lead to 43-35 with 3:13 remaining in the half.
Curry finally broke the Dubs’ 0-for-19 slump from downtown, splashing two in a row, to cut the lead to 46-41 with 2:25 left. Snyder called another timeout.
Once again, the momentum-stopper worked.
Green committed his third personal foul on a rebound where he was called for grabbing Jazz power forward backup Trevor Booker, a split-second before it appeared Rudy Gobert climbed over the back of Bogut for a rebound.
Curry then missed from downtown and, while going in for the offensive rebound, the Jazz tapped it out and Booker fed Hayward for a run-out dunk with Thompson trailing a step behind, as the only line of defense after Curry went in.
Booker scored 9 of the Jazz 11 points of the quarter, including a three-pointer and an answer-back early-offense finger roll right after Curry scissored past the Utah perimeter for his own finger roll.
Curry’s three-pointer right before the end of the half went short, and the Jazz took an unlikely 56-45 lead into halftime.
Curry led all scorers with 16 points on 6-for-12 field, but had just 2 assists. Golden State was out-rebounded, 28-17. Booker and Hayward had 12 points apiece for Utah.
The Warriors were shooting just 2-for-11 from beyond the arc.
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