The Golden State Warriors (29-5) were at Energy Solutions Arena in Salt Lake City, UT, to face the Utah Jazz (13-25). Festus Ezeli was out, but Andrew Bogut, listed as “questionable” at morning shootaround due to illness, ended up starting for the Warriors.
1ST QUARTER: Jazz Show Glimpses Of Big Frontcourt Advantage As Bogut Labors
Bogut still looked a bit rusty even though his first two plays were a dunk and a swat. After a successful Klay Thompson attack of the rim, a touchdown pass from Stephen Curry to Draymond Green and a catch-and-shoot by Harrison Barnes, Bogut got his dunk on an assist from Thompson from up top, giving the Warriors an early 13-8 lead with 6:43 to play. After that, he got his swat with help interior defense from Green, against Derrick Favors.
But Bogut’s highlights took a sudden turn as he missed a point-blank shot, Favors drew a foul on him, then Bogut got cleanly blocked by Rudy Gobert, who had subbed in at center for the starting Enes Kanter. Bogut got his miss back, but the shotclock had expired right before it.
At the first timeout, the Warriors held a 13-9 lead with 5:42 to go as the referees ruled a previous long two by Trey Burke a three-pointer after reviewing the video.
On the ATO (“after-timeout” play), the Jazz got some inside mojo on a baseline slam dunk from Elijah Millsap, as Thompson cheated too far on the weakside, then missed on a lunge for a lob to Millsap in the deep corner. After Green took a bad shot, Favors posted up and powered for two over Green in the left block and, after Marreese Speights missed his first jumper, Favors came back again in the left block, this time against Speights, and powered inward again for two in the block.
Golden State and Utah then traded jabs to close out the quarter, as Gobert missed a dunk and Andre Iguodala made him pay by scoring a fastbreak layup assisted by Leandro Barbosa, who had pushed the ball up. Although Favors answered that with a dunk, Gordon Hayward screwed up a dribble and Justin Holiday stole it, got the ball up to Barbosa, who scored a layup with the harm for an and-one.
The Jazz took a 26-25 lead into the second quarter. Thompson and Curry combined for a relatively modest 10 points on 4-for-7 from the field. Favors led the Jazz with 7 points, 3 rebounds. Bogut had 3 rebounds, but zero assists.
2ND QUARTER: Trading Baskets
Kanter displayed his raw talent early in the second frame, getting a three from the left corner, followed by a fadeaway after snagging an offensive rebound, followed by an early transition layup running down the floor past Speights and David Lee on a Barbosa miss.
But Holiday’s sparks kept the Warriors even with the Jazz, as he stole a pass and converted the fastbreak with some long steps and an emphatic dunk to finish the move, then slammed home an alley oop as Barbosa saved the ball from going out of bounds and looped a horseshoe lob to the flying Holiday. That tied the game at 33-33 with 8:45 to go in the half.
However, even after Golden State’s starters came back, they couldn’t get momentum. A Lee dunk got answered by a Gobert dunk. Iguodala had a nice thread-the-needle bounce pass to a baseline-cutting Curry for a layup, but Curry would make a bad entry pass left-handed into Lee and Joe Ingles made him pay with a three in transition the other way.
The Warriors had 13 of their 18 made baskets assisted on, but still trailed the Jazz, 42-39, with 5:25 left in the half.
After Curry drew Burke’s second personal foul, forcing him to the bench, both teams traded baskets. Curry had a three on an ATO, but Kanter got a reverse layup. Green hit from downtown, but Favors got a bucket over Bogut and screamed at him. Of course, Green then beat the Jazz downcourt and got a layup assisted by Curry.
The Warriors finished the half on a high note, however, as Curry drove past the Jazz and swung the ball back inside to Bogut racing by. Then Green stole a dribble by Hayward, lost the ball as Utah’s fans clamored for a kicked ball, to no avail, and Green then quickly fed to Curry on the left elbow.
Steph feigned a three, dribbled, then in mid-dribble, made a snap-pass to a cutting Barnes for the easy two right before the halftime buzzer.
That evened the score at 53-53. Curry tallied 12 points and 7 assists, while Green had 9 points but, startlingly, zero rebounds. Utah’s starting frontline of Hayward, Favors, and Kanter combined for 29 points, 13 rebounds.
The Dubs shot an astouding 24-for-41 (58.5%) as a team and had 19 assists on 24 made field goals.
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