For the second time in four nights, the Golden State Warriors demolished the Los Angeles Lakers in preseason play, this time at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, CA. And for the second time in four nights, it was at the hands of a Splash Brother.
Stephen Curry scored 25 points, including an “and-one” three-pointer that ultimately resulted 12 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists in the opening frame. In the second half, Kobe Bryant spent some time guarding Curry and, as the Lakers play-by-play TV announcer said on the air, Curry was “worth the price of admission”, drilling the trey from about thirty feet in Bryant’s face.
This one was done pretty much as quickly as it started.
FIRST QUARTER
Jeremy Lin was out with an injured ankle and the Lakers started Steve Nash.
For the Warriors, according to Bay Area News Group reporter Diamond Leung, head coach Steve Kerr told reporters Harrison Barnes would start, and not because of Andre Iguodala‘s broken nose. Kerr wanted to see how Iguodala and the team would perform in a backup point-forward role.
Barnes got things off to a good start for the Dubs as he drove hard, left-handed, and scored on his first attack. After the Lakers tied it up at 2-2, the Warriors went on a 12-0 run.
Curry hit a three, of the quick-release variety, on a feed from the post by David Lee. The second one came in transition shortly thereafter. The third had Nash lunging out towards Curry at the top of the arc, bumping into Curry as the shot went through the night. Curry gave his “1-2-3-4” count of fingers in celebration of the play.
Curry converted the four-point play and barely two minutes had expired in the game. In fact, barely one minute of play had occurred between Curry’s first bucket and his 10th point (at 11:11 then at 10:20, according to the play-by-play transcript).
Curry was not only scoring, but dishing out alley oops and end-to-end touchdown passes. Barnes got a lob and a slammed it home from Curry, causing a lot of #DubNation fans on Twitter to tweet out the #BlackFalcon hashtag.
Even when he was not hitting threes, Curry remained “en fuego” and displayed his elite-level release, nailing a long jumper on another pass from down low by Lee, before Nash could even react to the pass.
And when Curry finally missed, the Lakers play-by-play announcer said, “That was a short corner three that may have been too close for Steph.”
Meanwhile, Curry’s fellow #SplashBrothers backcourt mate, Klay Thompson, continued to do damage on both ends of the court. Whether it was smothering Bryant on a turnaround jumpshot or driving hard to the basket to feed Lee for a layup, Thompson continued to display the full repertoire.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Warriors showed off more talent from their deep lineup, as Andrew Bogut could be seen swallowing a rebound and then keeping the ball as the rest of his teammates streaked frontcourt.
As he reached the top of the circle, Bogut saw an opening and attacked the rim with the left-hand, leaving Lakers center Jordan Hill back-pedaling and forcing Hill to foul Bogut. It was a coast-to-coast play by 7-foot, 245-pound, right-handed center.
Then, another subplot: Bogut shot the free throws left-handed! He had shot them left-handed in practice on Saturday, as noted by San Francisco Chronicle reporter Rusty Simmons, but noted that it was to get his lefty hook shot ready and that he’d always been doing that.
Bogut only made one of the two free throws, but as the Lakers announcer remarked, that was better than his 34.4% from the line last season. Bogut would shoot two more free throws later in the game and missed both of those. We hope to have the scoop on whether or not those lefty attempts will continue, at practice tomorrow.
At that point, one Warriors fan on Twitter said, “OK, I’ve seen enough. Take the starters out.”
On cue, Ognjen Kuzmic then subbed in for Bogut.
Thompson then took his own turn at a four-point play from the right corner. Making the play even more impressive was the fact that he had first faked the three-pointer, then still in the “triple-threat” position (not having dribbled, shot, or passed), re-loaded the ball for the real shot and got fouled in the process.
Thompson also got his chance to do Curry’s “1-2-3-4” finger count and chuckled in the process:
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By then it was 24-5 with 5:34 to go in the first frame.
Thompson was not only doing it on the offensive end, but also on defense and against one of the best to ever play the game in Bryant. Here’s Bryant with a beautiful fade-away on Thompson, but notice how good the defense is:
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Pretty much everything was going right for the Warriors and, even when they didn’t go right, there wasn’t much consequence. For example, Lee mucked a pass from Curry that would have given Lee a layup under the basket, but on the ensuing fast break by the Lakers, Barnes had an emphatic blocked shot.
Barnes and Lee would soon get subbed out by Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green.
Kuzmic would put his long arms to good use, grabbing a rebound from the outstretched arms of Hill. After a Kuzmic alley oop assisted by Curry, the Warriors were up by three touchdowns, 28-7. There was still 2:58 to go in the quarter and the Lakers were shooting 2-for-21 from the field.
Iguodala had a play in which he beat his man, but gave up the attack in favor of a pass out to Thompson, who barely had his feet set, but still made the three-pointer. Iguodala would later do the same for Brandon Rush in the second half.
Thompson ended the first quarter with 10 points and a +26 plus-minus, also forcing Bryant to just 1-for-5 from the field. Curry collected 12 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. Kuzmic added 5 rebounds. It was an insurmountable 26-point lead for the Warriors, 39-13.
It was an embarrassing quarter for the Lakers:
SECOND QUARTER
The second quarter featured some #LOLakers folly, as Ronnie Price lost his shoe and turned the ball over to Iguodala. As Iguodala started the fast break, Price threw his shoe, which resulted in a technical foul:
Other highlights included a laser pass by Bogut on a backdoor cut, something that Warriors fans are seeing more often, by Green that led to a layup, and a Bogut left-handed tip-in off the board. Leandro Barbosa, who sat out Thursday night’s game, came in and immediately hit his first jumper.
THIRD QUARTER
Curry got a chance to upstage Bryant with this deep three-pointer that made the score 82-50:
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Bryant smiled and gave Curry a butt slap on the way back to the other side of the court.
Curry would come out of the game at 3:30 remaining, with the score 88-54.
Marreese Speights came in and scored 11 points in 14 minutes, including 9 in the quarter.
The Warriors led 100-60 at the end of three quarters.
FOURTH QUARTER
Speights added a blocked shot to his resume for the night and finished with an impressive line: 11 points on 4-for-5 from the field, 3 rebounds, and 1 blocked shot.
He told Tim Roye on KNBR after the game that Kerr had been trying to work on Kuzmic’s game and giving him the minutes. “I’m just trying to be a pro and stay ready for when my name is called and that’s what I think I’ve been doing for the last couple years, being ready when my name is called,” Speights said.
Nemanja Nedovic shot and made both of his three-pointers while Jason Kapono made his first jumper and played 6 minutes. Aaron Craft and Mitchell Watt were the only Warriors to not see action, besides the still-injured Shaun Livingston and Festus Ezeli.
Check out our game tweets by searching on the hashtag #LetsGoWarriorsLive on Twitter. Join us on Twitter @LetsGoWarriors for the next game this Thursday, October 16th, 2014, at 4:00PM as the Warriors face the Denver Nuggets from Des Moines, Iowa.
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