STAPLES CENTER, LOS ANGELES, CA — The trailer to the movie gave you an expectation of a hard-fought battle. With Stephen Curry still not cleared to play, Andre Iguodala was set to lead the Golden State Warriors at the point guard position against the seemingly still very-beatable Los Angeles Lakers. As Marcus Thompson tweeted right before tipoff:
Steph Curry is out
— Marcus Thompson (@gswscribe) November 23, 2013
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
David Lee came out hustling and was already up to 7 points by the time Nemanja Nedovic surprisingly came in for Iguodala with about 4:00 to go in the 1st. The first substitution was actually Draymond Green for Klay Thompson, which was even more surprising. That also indicated that perhaps Kent Bazemore may have seen his last days as the backup point guard for the Warriors, in the absence of Curry and Toney Douglas, who is still out with a stress reaction to the left tibia, although he did suit up. Pau Gasol was hitting on all cylinders, with 10 points on 4-for-5 shooting to go along with 3 rebounds in the initial frame.
It seemed the early substitutions were designed to bring in the low-producing bench in at the earliest and least-riskiest time, while giving the starters an earlier breather than their 43-plus-minutes-each against the Memphis Grizzlies two nights ago.
Another growing problem seemed to be that whenever a Warrior got the ball down low and the Lakers doubled, there was failure of a cut to free someone open. For example, Iguodala got called on a travel that really wasn’t his fault, as there were no targets making the defense work. That was the first indication that the Warriors were taking the Lakers too lightly, unlike the match against the Grizzlies.
In the second quarter, we witnessed Andrew Bogut drive to the layup on the left side, complete with a fake wrap-around reminiscent of Rajon Rondo (yes, it really happened). Thompson was up to 12 points, but Gasol had tallied 16 by then. The Lakers hit 4 three-pointers, all seemingly on covers by Klay Thompson.
Meanwhile, Ric Bucher tweeted out the specifics of Curry being held out again:
Steph Curry passed concussion protocol but admitted to doc to still having headaches. Hopes those subside, passes tests Sat and is a go.
— Ric Bucher (@RicBucher) November 23, 2013
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The Warriors seemed to be constantly trailing, yet were only down by 3 as Iguodala hit a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to 46-49 with 1:16 to go. Then a missed Laker jumper caromed off Green as there were four Warriors ready to get the rebound inside the paint. While that may have simply been a bad bounce, it seemed as if the Warriors just weren’t that alert, harking back to the aforementioned lack of cutters.
The uncorraled rebound eventually led to a Nick Young and-one, followed by Iguodala turning the ball over at the point, and a three-pointer by Steve Blake. All of a sudden, the Warriors were down 46-55 heading into halftime. They would not come out of the locker room until there was 4:30 to go on the clock before the start of the third quarter.
The Warriors came into the third chipping away at the lead. Harrison Barnes had a strong right-handed attack that cut the lead to 60-63. But then Klay, seemingly a step slow all night long, sailed a very bad cross-court pass off of another baseline double-team. And yet, the Warriors still managed to tie the game at 63-63 on a rare (in Steph’ absence, at least) three-pointer. It was after that that the Warriors lost Iguodala, per Rusty
Simmons:
After he led the Warriors back from a nine-point deficit and tied it 63-63 with a three-pointer at the 4:23 mark of the third quarter, Andre Iguodala came up hobbling. He limped to the locker room with 3:22 remaining and didn’t return because of a left hamstring strain.
Iguodala appeared to be in quite a bit of pain as he limped to the locker room.
From there, as the saying goes, it all went downhill. Bazemore replaced Iguodala. Young and Jordan Farmar made the next four baskets and all of a sudden, like the last frame, the Lakers headed into the fourth with a full head of steam, up 75-63.
In the fourth, the Warriors couldn’t get stops and it seemed the Lakers were always up by about 13 points.
“We had enough to get it done and we did not get it done,” Jackson said, “We cannot walk away with a good taste with how we played and the effort we put forth.”
“I gotta watch the 2nd half and the game once again because we out-rebound them by 14, won the points in the paint, fastbreak points, second-chance points, you name it, and still we get beat,” Lee said, “Obviously anytime a team scores over 100 on us we’ve got to take a look at what we did defensively because we’re a better defensive team than that.”
On his injury:
Iguodala said he felt a pop. "This worries me a little bit." … Said he can't even walk right now
— Marcus Thompson (@gswscribe) November 23, 2013
//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Iguodala added that he hasn’t sustained an injury like this. Even the least serious hamstring strains — and often times there is that snapping or popping sensation — take time to heal, so you can probably expect Iguodala to be out at least a couple of games, if not more if the Warriors are to customarily extra-cautious:
“I’ve never been hurt before,” Iguodala said after totaling six points and six assists in 28 minutes Friday. “I’ve had something that might’ve kept me out for a game. Something really minor where I knew I’d be back in two days. But this one kind of worries me a little bit.
Without Iguodala, the Warriors had a lineup consisting of Klay, Barnes, Green, Lee, and Bogut, and Klay and HB took turns bringing the ball up. It wasn’t pretty. But throughout the contest, with things not going their way, the body language of the Warriors just was not right. Klay followed his bad pass with a forced three-pointer. At times it seemed the Warriors weren’t taking the Lakers’ frontline of Pau and Jordan Hill as seriously as they had prepared for Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph of Memphis.
Per MT2, here’s what Green said about that:
“I don’t think we gave our best effort. We didn’t play hard enough,” Draymond Green said. “That’s not how we got to where we are. … When you let your shots determine how you play defense, that’s bad. Let’s defend people, and then shots will fall.”
Gasol made a huge bucket fading away on Bogut to keep the lead at 12 with under 5:00 to go. Barnes answered it with a beastly drive, but was soon taken out by Bazemore, only to return later.
As far as Curry is concerned for tonight’s home game against the Portland Trailblazers, things are still up in the air and Steph may very well be mandated to sit this one out, because he hasn’t participated in full contact workouts or practice and the Warriors had not planned having one today, per MT2.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
