ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Miami Heat at the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors had a 55-38 lead at the half.
3RD QUARTER: Human Torch Alert!
The Heat regrouped and came out of halftime stringing together a 7-0 run via four Chris Bosh free throws that drew two consecutive shooting fouls on Draymond Green, his second and third personals, and a Luol Deng three-pointer.
With the score 57-45, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr took a timeout to stem the tide.
On the “ATO” (after-timeout play), Harrison Barnes exploded to the hoop with a dribble-drive for a reverse layup, then Andrew Bogut stole the ball from Bosh, went behind-the-back to advance the ball on a pass to Green, who assisted Klay Thompson for a hanging bankshot, attacking the rim, yet another new wrinkle to Thompson’s game this season:
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In a testament to Kerr’s mandate for passing, every Warriors players had at least one assist.
Then Curry went on a mini-three-point scoring binge, getting the first the traditional way, via and-one on a high-banking layup:
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The other two were, of course, splashes from downtown. A fly-by step-over was his fifth of the game, assisted by an extra pass by Andre Iguodala and Curry’s sixth trey was assisted by Leandro Barbosa.
Yet the Heat still managed to cut the lead to single-digits, after a Deng three-pointer made it 64-55, Warriors, with 6:38 to go in the quarter. However, Whiteside mishandled an alley-oop thrown to him and David Lee made him pay, getting a layup on the other end, after which Heat coach Erik Spoelstra called timeout.
Marreese Speights and Barbosa joined in on the splash-fest as the period came to a close, as Curry passed to Speights on the baseline and the jumper trickled in, a testament to Mo’s midrange shooting touch.
Barbosa closed things out with a trey with 23.2 seconds remaining, with Lee providing the extra pass. That gave the Warriors 24 assists on 31 made field goals. By contrast, the Heat had fewer made field goals than the Warriors had assists, going 21-for-51 from the field (41.2%) as Golden State took an 81-63 lead into the final frame.
4TH QUARTER: Curry Ends The Night 7-For-10 From Downtown
Justin Holiday got the Warriors off to a good fourth quarter start, drilling a three, then getting this and-one after Iguodala once again gave up a layup, perhaps too unselfishly, although it ended up with one extra point more than what Andre would have earned for the otherwise wide-open layup for Golden State. It was also Iguodala’s fifth assist and gave the Dubs an 86-72 lead:
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Curry checked back in with 6:48 to go, up 88-73 and, to the shock and horror of #Roaracle, missed two free throws to the “MVP” chants, after a shooting foul by Shawne Williams.
The brief venture into Bizarro World continued as Bosh fouled Bogut on two successive trips down the court, in an attempt by Spoelstra to get the ball back, but Bogut made all four free throws, maintaining the double-digit lead at 96-82.
Kerr quelled any chance of a Heat run, calling a twenty-second timeout after Bosh slammed home a missed trey by Deng, after Thompson had muffed the ball over to Napier on a missed Bosh jumper.
On the ATO, Curry got the pass up top, drove through the middle and converted an and-one. The Dubs’ lead was back up to 15 with 3:06 remaining.
Miami couldn’t generate any offense and the Warriors gave the Heat more hurt as Green tallied a blocked shot, giving him nine straight games with at least one and a block in fourteen out of the last fifteen games.
Curry capped things off with his seventh triple of the game from the left corner with 26.3 seconds remaining, stretching the lead to 104-87 and giving Iguodala 7 assists.
Curry ended the night with 32 points on 11-for-19 field, 7-for-10 downtown, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 3 turnovers. Thompson added 19 points on 7-for-17 shooting, 3-for-9 from beyond the arc. The individual numbers seemed subpar for the remaining Warriors, but that was because of the solid bench play in the second quarter, as well as 29 assists on 38 made field goals, whereby every Warrior recorded at least one assist and an astounding nine players recorded at least two.
Bosh led the Heat with 26 points, Whiteside had 10 points and 12 rebounds, and Napier tallied 10 points, 6 assists in defeat.
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