ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Memphis Grizzlies (2-1) were in Oakland tonight to face the Golden State Warriors (3-0) in another marquee matchup between point guards Mike Conley and Stephen Curry.
Andrew Bogut was still out for the Warriors with a concussion sustained in the season opener seven days ago. Jarell Martin was out for the Grizzlies due to left foot surgery.
1st Quarter
Early on, the Warriors blitzed the Grizzlies’ bigs and capitalized with an in-transition three-pointer from the left wing by Stephen Curry, assisted by Draymond Green, as Tony Allen put up an uncontested airball three when Marc Gasol got doubled down low.
Green followed that up with his own trailing three, fed by Harrison Barnes, after Zach Randolph (“Z-Bo”) was tripled.
Still, Randolph and Gasol managed to get buckets just with their talent and power moves.
Festus Ezeli, starting in place of Bogut again, had his own power move, with a two-handed putback slam of a missed runner down the lane by Green.
With 4:10 remaining, Golden State took a 19-13 lead as Klay Thompson made an impressive behind-the-back pass to a cutting Green in the lane and Green found Andre Iguodala, who had subbed in for Barnes at the 5:53 mark, at the rim for an easy lay-in.
Ezeli had a nice quarter, collecting 4 points, 5 rebounds, and a nice block of Randolph’s left side power move to the hole.
Curry tried to sprinkle a little fairy dust on the game, but couldn’t hit a three in which he crossed over Beno Udrih, who did well not to bite too hard, hesitated, but then still launched from the right wing.
The Grizzlies took a 22-21 lead into the second quarter. Curry had a team-high 6 points. Gasol led all scorers 7 points, but both teams were shooting below 35%.
2nd Quarter
The Warriors had a couple of mini sparks in the second frame as Iguodala got a dunk while the Grizzlies got a little too shifted over on Barnes:
Golden State is running! Back to back dunks for the @Warriors. https://t.co/FRtG7V44LF
— NBA TV (@NBATV) November 3, 2015
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The other Barnes, Matt Barnes off the bench for Memphis, played well, getting a couple blocked shots and a three-pointer in transition, but Iguodala soon found Harrison for another dunk on a two-handed alley-oop as the Grizzlies fell asleep getting back on defense.
Memphis head coach Dave Joerger took a timeout, but Golden State wasn’t done.
The Dubs built a 40-29 lead with over five minutes to go as Shaun Livingston got a left post block turnaround fade over Conley to drop, Harrison played “tic-tac-toe” with Leandro Barbosa with a lot of motion and cutting, finding Green underneath for an easy two, and Thompson drilled a trailing trey after Jeff Green bricked a layup on the other end.
Golden State made one more push late in the game as the Grizzlies lost their way on offense.
First, Curry got an and-one lefty push-shot to go against Gasol:
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Then Jeff Green got blocked by Draymond and, on the break, Thompson missed a twisting reverse layup, but Ezeli was there to slam it home:
Festus then blocked Jeff again, Ezeli’s third and the Warriors’ ninth of the game, and Klay drained a triple, then another one as he ran screen action on Curry, then let Draymond screen his man as he popped out on top.
That gave the Warriors a commanding 53-34 lead at the half.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @etapia8)
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