ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Two nights after escaping Portland with a 113-111 squeaker, the Golden State Warriors (41-7) were back at home to face the Charlotte Hornets (23-25).
The Warriors were without Zaza Pachulia (strained right rotator cuff) and David West (non-displaced fracture, left thumb). The Hornets were without Cody Zeller (quad contusion).
Q1: Torch Lit
Golden State came out of the gate ablaze, starting in the form of Stephen Curry, who hit his first two treys, one on a pass by JaVale McGee, who started in place of Pachula, and the second on a step-back immediately after Nicolas Batum got the Hornets on the board.
Kemba Walker answered with a jumper off a pick-and-roll left wing with Spencer Hawes, but Curry struck again and found Klay Thompson in the left corner for three more.
The Warriors continued to score by three as Marvin Williams went too hard on the left side and Draymond Green attacked, finding Steph yet again from the top on a trail, good for another triple:
[protected-iframe id=”147f22841d398bd1605579f80f399a5c-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F826999873882820608″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]Kevin Durant then did well to close on a Batum trey atttempt, and Curry used an up-fake at the right arc to step into the paint and dished to Thompson on the left wing for another three-pointer.
That gave the Warriors an early 15-5 lead as Hornets head coach Steve Clifford called timeout with 8:50 remaining. #Roaracle gave a standing ovation:
[protected-iframe id=”941c801a7bcd1d5f6c58e9e7c79542eb-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F827004078999867392″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″] [protected-iframe id=”126fe809b86964e7b77e23e0665a5455-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fcjzero%2Fstatus%2F827000504513355776″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″] [protected-iframe id=”d007c3ecb5e097157d4cc636438cc92f-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fcjzero%2Fstatus%2F827001996423098368″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″]Charlotte finally broke their mini-drought with a Michael Kidd-Gilchrist jumper, but Steph came back again, driving in to feed McGee with a back-side bouncer for a slam dunk.
After a minute of empty possessions, Curry went attack mode again, this time with the lefty dribble, and used a lefty sling pass along the baseline to find Klay for an open triple.
The splash gave the Warriors a 20-7 lead and, after another Kidd-Gilchrist “J”, JaVale got a nice feed inside from Green, but bonked the dunk on the front rim.
Durant happened to be where the ball caromed nearby, he dished out to Steph open at the left arc, and another triple gave Golden State a monstrous 23-9 lead as Clifford called another timeout with 6:19 to play.
Out of the timeout, Thompson drew an “and-one” against “MKG” and, on the bonus free throw, Marco Belinelli checked in for Charlotte to a nice applause by the Oracle crowd.
Klay then missed a three, but JaVale was there to clean up, powering a banker over Hawes, plus the foul:
[protected-iframe id=”9fe71b22d4491fd01e05a2ff4d71d1cc-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F827002258856349697″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″]McGee’s free throw made it 29-9, Warriors.
Golden State wasn’t done, however, and Belinelli missed a three, leading to a fast break led by Durant, who found a trailing Andre Iguodala for a two-hand jam.
Thompson got beat backdoor, but responded the next time down with an upfake that led to a bankshot jumper.
During free throws drawn by Walker, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr brought in youngsters Kevon Looney and Patrick McCaw.
After a timeout by Kerr, Durant found Curry on a backdoor cut, who then fed Looney for an and-one layup.
But later, Looney didn’t cut when Iguodala had the ball in the perimeter, and when Looney did, he charged on the reception into Hawes, then at the other end, got switched, didn’t collapse when Curry got stuck guarding Frank Kaminsky down low, and Kaminsky scored easily.
Steph also had a heat-check that missed from the right wing and he patted his chest in acknowledgment that it was a bad shot.
The opening quarter ended with Iguodala short on a three, but with 4 seconds left, Curry got the rebound near the free throw line, dribbled out to the left arc, and buried another triple, this time over Batum, and the Warriors headed into the second stanza with a whopping 41-21 lead:
[protected-iframe id=”40e422fa816d18c4ca1edcdede3d945f-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F827005934564052993″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″]Steph led all scorers with 18 points on 6-for-8 deep, plus 6 assists.
Q2: Lemme Carry That Torch For You, Steph
Thompson continued to cook at the start of the second stanza, getting a layup, then after Draymond hit a three and back-ironed another one, Klay was in the right place where the ball bounced off, at the top of the key, and he calmly drained another triple.
James McAdoo got a piece of Ramon Sessions‘ layup:
[protected-iframe id=”643dfdb8c8f11136d390576f1d28f573-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F827007254742261762″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″]Belinelli hit a jumper after Iguodala swatted away a drive by Kaminsky, and Thompson responded with a catch-and-splash from the left arc, assisted by Green, giving the Warriors a 52-30 lead with 8:41 to go.
After a timeout, Klay hit a jumper, then got another in-transition trey to fall…
[protected-iframe id=”5de9ea35e40ec999df6ffe0730f7b708-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F827009170981285888″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″]…but missed a heat-check extra-early attempt from the deep right wing on a break led by Iguodala.
It was one of the rare times when both #SplashBrothers had a heat-check in the same game.
With 6:16 remaining, Kerr calmed things down a bit with a timeout, Golden State still up big, 57-37.
Out of the timeout, Thompson added two more free throws to give himself 26 points on the night, 8 more than Curry’s 18 in the first quarter.
McGee also swatted Walker:
[protected-iframe id=”ea794d6eebcbc4ea820263537a447111-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F827010181573718016″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]Later, Draymond came back in for Klay as McCaw shot three free throws after a foul by Jeremy Lamb, then Steph broke Lamb’s ankles on the right perimeter with Green nearby to set the pick:
[protected-iframe id=”cd504bb470cf8dab5d766f648045cf31-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FWorld_Wide_Wob%2Fstatus%2F827011390527320070″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]Curry added a scoop to the hole after that, using the threat of the three to his advantage, and with 3:08 to play, the Warriors held a 66-45 lead.
Golden State continued to pour it on after a timeout, as Lamb missed, Draymond rebounded, outlet to Iguodala, who found KD for a big-steppiong dunk.
Green got a piece of a Walker triple, Steph got doubled, and Draymond went down the lane for a power layup.
Batum did well to respond, hitting a three, but Curry came right back on the dribble up the court and pulled up from deep straightaway to give him 26 points along with Klay’s 26, the total of 52 out-matching Charlotte’s 51. The Warriors led 73-51 with 1:15 to play.
Williams then got blocked on a drive by Draymond, and once again Iguodala led the break, finding Durant for a trailing lay-in.
Batum hit another impressive triple, but when the Hornets doubled Curry at the logo, he fed Green on the right side, Dryamond found Durant further down on the perimeter, and KD connected with Iguodala cutting backdoor for an uncontest dunk-in at the rim:
[protected-iframe id=”9f155b76b4b37fdf498dcb215f54dac9-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F827014095710728192″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″]That gave the Warriors a dominating 77-56 lead at halftime. Curry was 9-for-12 from the field, Klay 9-for-14, and the Splash Brothers were a combined 13-for-19 from beyond the arc.
[protected-iframe id=”86a8d55f931c93d7fec34a5df637dac0-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FNBA%2Fstatus%2F827014581897797633″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″][twitter-follow screen_name=’poormanscommish’ show_count=’yes’]
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