ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Philadelphia 76ers, the NBA’s worst team at 4-25, were in town tonight to face the Golden State Warriors (24-5) at #Roaracle. Once again, Festus Ezeli and Andrew Bogut were out for the Warriors. Marreese Speights got the start again in place of the injured Golden State centers.
1ST QUARTER: Points Off Turnovers And (Draymond) Blocks
The Warriors started off yet again with a short bout of lunacy, the term David Lee used to describe what head coach Steve Kerr later described after the Minnesota Timberwolves game three nights ago as “brain freezes”.
The Sixers’ bigs, Nerlens Noel and Henry Sims, got buckets inside the paint early, taking a 6-0 lead, as Klay Thompson made a bad pass to Stephen Curry, who could’ve easily been charged with a “stone hands”-like turnover, and Draymond Green threw a swing pass that sailed “just a little bit outside” to where Kerr was sitting.
But Harrison Barnes quickly turned things around on the defensive end, getting a steal, then going between the legs to avoid an in-transition defender and finishing the coast-to-coast ride with a pass to a cutting Marreese Speights for the easy righty layup.
Thompson then stole the ball from Sims and on the ensuing fastbreak, split Michael Carter-Williams and Sims, and converted the reverse layup. Thompson wasn’t finished, as he stole another ball and got a pull-up long two-pointer to go from the top of the key as the Sixers retreated into the paint, also concerned with Curry on the wing.
Klay added a three from the right elbow and this jumper from the left side for a banker, after Speights tipped out an offensive rebound of Curry’s missed trey:
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And just like that, Thompson scored 9 straight points to put the Warriors up, 11-6, with 6:31 to go and 76ers coach Brett Brown calling timeout.
Sixers small forward Robert Covington then scored a two and a three against two buckets by Speights and a Curry trey. David Lee subbed in for Speights and immediately got a slip on the left side for a dunk after action with Thompson.
Green got a steal, outlet the ball to Curry, who led the break and delivered a beautiful left-handed drop-bounce pass for Thompson for the dunk, to make it 22-12 with 4:06 to play in the first frame:
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Curry got another three assisted by Green, then after two free throws, the Warriors put pressure on the inbounds and Curry stole it, reaching high for the interception around midcourt, then finding a cutting Andre Iguodala for another slam. At that point, the Warriors had as many points off turnovers (14) as the 76ers had in total.
Covington got a runner in traffic to break the Warriors’ run, but Lee got a right-handed layup assisted by Iguodala, and Justin Holiday spelled Curry with 1:11 to play and Golden State up, 31-17.
Holiday then blocked KJ McDaniels‘ layup, a blocked shot that easily could’ve gone to Green in traffic, then Green got his own block of Tony Wroten‘s layup.
The Warriors took a 32-17 lead into the 2nd frame, with Thompson leading the way with 11 points on 5-for-7 floor, and Curry adding 8 points, 3 assists. Speights contributed 6 points and 3 assists.
The 76ers had accumulated 11 turnovers already, with the Warriors tallying a steal on 10 of those.
2ND QUARTER: Target Practice
After Holiday got a nice steal from under the rim of Noel, Barnes came back the other way with a jumper and Brown called another timeout with the Sixers’ deficit mounting, 38-19, with 10:00 to play in the half.
The Warriors’ second unit then rattled off a 10-0 run as Shaun Livingston made a turnaround, Barnes got two more jumpers to fall, and Barnes drew two free throws, splitting them, after Holiday gave him a nice dish.
As the game became more and more of a blowout and the energy sapped away from the building, Thompson, Curry, and Speights played “tic-tac-toe” with Speights finishing with this two-handed cock-back tomahawk jam to make it 52-31 with 3:15 to go.
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Green got another block, this time on a Malcolm Thomas reverse layup attempt, then a three-pointer from the top assisted by Klay. Later, Green also got an and-one on a cut, with the assist going to Barnes.
Approaching the last possession of the half, Barnes collected a miss from Covington, fed it to Curry, who closed out the quarter, crossing halfcourt and slowing down with 18 seconds remaining, to run a set play that got Thompson open on the right wing for a three-pointer with 4.3 ticks remaining. Thompson had missed his last four three-pointers, most of them wide-open, earlier in the quarter.
The Warriors took a commanding 61-34 lead into halftime. The Sixers committed 17 turnovers and the Warriors tallied 13 steals, with Green, who filled up the stat sheet again with 6 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots, on record for 4 of those steals. Thompson (6-for-12) and Speights (7-for-10) led the Dubs with 14 points apiece, and Curry added 8 points on 2-for-4 from downtown and 5 assists.
Golden State assisted on 20 of their 25 field goals made and outscored Philadelphia 15-8 on fastbreak points.
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