Two nights after coming back to defeat the Timberwolves in Minnesota, the Golden State Warriors (21-4) were in “NOLA” to finish up their five-game road trip with a game at the New Orleans Pelicans (8-17).
The Warriors were without Zaza Pachulia (wrist). Head coach Steve Kerr announced in the pregame presser that he would start, this time, JaVale McGee instead of Anderson Varejao, presumably to guard the more agile Anthony Davis, although Kerr didn’t explicitly admit to that.
The Pelicans were without Dante Cunningham (knee), Tyreke Evans (knee) is out, and Quincy Pondexter (knee).
Q1: NOLA Resilient
The Warriors got out to another rough start, although McGee played well, soaring in for a put-back lay-in on the opening offensive possession.
But Buddy Hield started in a groove, hitting a jumper then a three, and after consecutive turnovers where Klay Thompson passed up a triple to lob it into McGee, errantly, then a bad pass by Kevin Durant, a Jrue Holiday on a turnover by Draymond Green led to a run-out dunk by Holiday, forcing Kerr to take a timeout with 8:21 remaining, down 13-5 with 3 turnovers already.
Out of the timeout, Durant hit a reliable jumper to break the spell, but Holiday hit a trey.
After an Anthony Davis jumper, Green went top shelf to McGee…
Draymond throwin' it up for JaVale on @CSNAuthentic 💪 pic.twitter.com/8SfYGbbvye
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) December 14, 2016
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…then JaVale got another lob and drew a foul on Alexis Ajinca.
Near the shot clock buzzer, Hield then got the ball to Davis for a jumper, Curry then airballed a push-shot from the right baseline, but Hield was short from the right elbow in response.
Steph the got an opening on the catch from Draymond on the left wing, letting Davis fly by and shooting in Holiday’s face. The splash brought the Warriors back to within 20-15.
After another Hield miss, Green got another board, raced up the court, found Thompson, who then dribbled in and found Curry on the left side again. Steph let another Pelican fly by and swished the three, and all of a sudden, Golden State was back in business, down just 20-18 with 4:09 to play as New Orleans head coach Alvin Gentry called another timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Warriors took a momentary lead as Andre Iguodala switched onto Holiday and forced him into an airball, then “KD” took the diminutive Tim Frazier off the dribble and hit a stop-and-pop.
Later, after a touchdown pass by Davis that sailed out of bounds, Curry stopped and popped as well from the top, on a pick-and-roll with Green, and the Warriors were up, 25-22.
But after another Davis jumper in the lane, Steph missed his first three of the night, Langston Galloway came off the bench to drill from deep, Draymond missed a three, and Frazier hit a bucket.
Curry answered with a nice drive into the lane, finishing with a righty reverse scoop on the left bank, and Draymond found KD for a dunk.
However, Davis answered with a three and, to close out the opening frame, blocked Durant’s attempt in the lane, where he probably should have gone with a jump-stop and pump fake, with about 15 seconds to go and with 0.7 ticks left, Frazier dribbled to the right baseline and hit a jumper over Curry to give the Pelicans a 35-29 advantage.
Q2: Pelicans Stay Hot, Or Dubs Defense Stays Bad
Klay, Shaun Livingston, and Iguodala all hit buckets to start the second stanza, but Galloway hit consecutive triples, as if the Warriors just couldn’t learn that 60% of his shots this season are from distance.
Thompson answered with two baskets, assisted by Iguodala then enabled with a pick from David West, but former Warrior Reggie Williams got the line, hit a trey, and got back to the line again to give the Pelicans a 52-44 lead.
Ian Clark got his first action and drained a triple, then Curry flicked a pass backwards to Green for a splash, cutting the New Orleans lead to 52-50:
That assist by Steph… 😳
Watch now on @CSNAuthentic! pic.twitter.com/Q57DevGcYS
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) December 14, 2016
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But the Warriors couldn’t build any momentum as both teams had empty possessions. Kerr finally took a timeout with 3:24 remaining, the Pelicans still up, 54-50.
Out of the timeout, a beautifully drawn “ATO” (after timeout) play got Draymond a dunk, assisted by Klay…
[protected-iframe id=”eefd5fdce7ef298251a45fc140ce3e29-114320562-8287831″ info=”https://vine.co/v/5Q19TTmPh1Y/embed/simple” width=”300″ height=”300″ frameborder=”0″]https://platform.vine.co/static/scripts/embed.js…but Solomon Hill answered with a three from the left corner over Durant, the ninth three-pointer for a team ranked 29th out of 30 NBA teams in downtown field goal percentage.
Later, Davis drove the left side and hit an “and-one” runner with the foul on Thompson, giving NOLA a 62-54 lead with 1:38 to play.
Klay answered by getting to the line, but once again Galloway hit a triple to give the Pelicans a 65-56 lead with just 49.5 seconds to go.
Curry corralled a miss by Green to put the ball back in with a short put-back in the lane, to give the Warriors a respectable 65-58 deficit heading into halftime.
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