Two nights after winning a back-to-back road game in Milwaukee, the Golden State Warriors (11-2) were in Indianapolis to face the Indiana Pacers (7-7).
The Warriors were without Damian Jones (pectoral surgery) and head coach Steve Kerr opted to put Anderson Varejao one the inactive list. The Pacers were without Paul George (left ankle sprain), C.J. Miles (sore left knee) and Myles Turner (right ankle).
Q1 – No More Slump For Klay
Klay Thompson got off to a nice start, hitting two out of four three-point tries early, while Zaza Pachulia did yeoman’s work on the glass, grabbing four defensive rebounds.
Kevin Durant also hit Pachulia in the high post, Zaza passed up an open shot, Durant looped around him all the way from the opposite wing, got the hand-off, and turned the corner for a lefty lay-in plus the harm.
That gave the Warriors an 8-5 lead with 8:07 remaining.
However, Stephen Curry’s shooting woes continued as he missed two threes, one of them wide open too which Curry took out his mouthpiece in disgust, but chased down a long rebound and threw a touchdown pass to Draymond Green that ended with a two-handed jam, Green hanging onto the rim and swinging past a Pacer who came flying by too late.
Monta Ellis then got a pass from the left wing deflected by Steph and Curry was off to the races, getting wrapped up by Ellis at the rim on the fastbreak.
Golden State edged ahead, 13-5, with 6:41 to play as Pacers head coach Nate McMillan called timeout.
McMillan inserted Rodney Stuckey and Stuckey quickly got on the board with a fast break lefty after Zaza got stripped on a pass inside to him by Curry, but Thompson hit another “J”…
Klay already has 10 points 🙃 (@CSNAuthentic) pic.twitter.com/x5mQdVOGeC
— GoldenStateWarriors (@warriors) November 22, 2016
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…then after Pachulia grabbed a missed Klay trey, Klay cut to the baseline and Zaza fed him with a behind-the-back pass, resulting in another turnaround jumper to give the Warriors a 17-17 lead with 5:17 to go.
Stuckey hit two more shots sandwiched around a Durant left-block mid-post turnaround jumper that trickled in, and Kerr took a timeout, up 19-11.
Out of the timeout, Thompson dribbled down the right side, jumped, and threw the ball away, resulting in a run-out layup by Jeff Teague.
Then after a Green missed three, Teague drove the lane, got blocked by JaVale McGee, who had come in for Pachulia, but Draymond and JaVale bumped into each other, leaving an easy putback for Seraphin.
That trimmed Golden State’s lead to 19-15, but the Pacers fouled Steph, Curry found McGee at the rim after a curl cut, and Ian Clark found Draymond for a layup after Andre Iguodala got a steal (then missed the fast break scoop) at the other end.
Iguodala added a triple on a catch from the right wing, Clark got a three from the left wing to drop, assisted by Iguodala, after a miss by Seraphin, and Aaron Brooks finally answered, but by then the Pacers were down, 34-21, closing out the quarter.
Durant missed a trey to end the period, McGee hustled to try and save it, but got the ball knocked out of bounds on him, and the Warriors ended the first period up, 34-21.
Q2 – Death By Several Back-Cuts
The second stanza started at sloppily, as both teams missed a ton of shots.
David West came in and got a lefty cutting layup to go, with the dime from Shaun Livingston.
But Clark and Durant couldn’t connect, although Livingston did hit from the left pinch post and Klay got a backdoor cut fed by West, and after an airball from the top by Clark, a Curry miss from the right arc on a side-step, a Thompson miss from the beyond tharc, and a Teague-to-Thaddeus Young alley-oop after “KD” missed a jumper, McMillan finally called timeout, the Pacers still down by ten.
Out of the timeout, the Warriors made a push behind a couple of nice backdoor cuts by Klay, both assisted by Green.
Add a right catch-and-side-step-dribble-left triple by Steph, a block by Draymond on a Young putback attempt of an Ellis miss, another block by Durant on Glenn Robinson III, and a Curry shot-put short jumper after grabbing KD’s left baseline miss away from Teague in the right block, and the Warriors had a 58-38 lead with 31.5 seconds left.
Young hit a lefty inside the paint, Steph answered with a triple up top (finally), but Stuckey hit a bucket with two seconds remaining.
Curry took the inbound and double-clutched a three-quarter-court heave just a bit after the buzzer…
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It didn't count, but #StephGonnaSteph 😳 pic.twitter.com/zrFCviuK8D
— CSN Warriors News (@CSNWarriors) November 22, 2016
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…It dropped, but obviously didn’t count, and the Warriors took a 61-42 lead into the second half.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @yellaboy_craig)
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