ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Houston Rockets at the Golden State Warriors, Game 5 of the 2015 Western Conference Finals.
The Warriors took a 52-46 lead into the third quarter.
3RD QUARTER: Klay Sits Down
Klay Thompson continued his hot shooting into the third, starting the Warriors off with a jumper, then a long two — later changed to a three — from the left side, but after Jason Terry answered with a three-pointer of his own, assisted by James Harden, things went downhill for Golden State’s shooting guard.
First, his left baseline jumper fell short, then Trevor Ariza dissected the Warriors defense down the lane, Andrew Bogut shifted over, and Thompson ended up fouling Dwight Howard on the feed from Ariza. That was Klay’s 4th personal.
Curry missed a wide-open three after Bogut found him on an offensive rebound of Draymond Green‘s miss, then Harden drove down the left side of the lane and drew a whistle. Harrison Barnes immediately raised his hand to claim responsibility for the foul, but Harden pointed at Klay and he was right. The ref gave Thompson his 5th personal.
Klay knew it was a bad play, went to the bench, buried his face in his towel, and eventually threw the towel down on the floor in frustration. Leandro Barbosa subbed in.
To make matters worse, Green threw the inbound behind Curry, Ariza stole the ball near halfcourt, attacked Draymond, got the foul at the rim, and the ball went in for a three-point play, to make it 56-55, Warriors, with 9:14 to go.
Things were going seriously downhill as Barnes was called for a questionable charge on Harden going down the right side of the lane. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout, and during the break, the referees looked at the tape and ruled Thompson’s shot near the start of the quarter, a three-pointer — about the only thing that went right for the Dubs in a long time.
That made it 57-55, Warriors, with 8:42 remaining.
It wasn’t until Green posted up Josh Smith, faked him, and got the and-one as the bankshot fell through, that Golden State got a little bit of separation.
Howard posted up on the next possession, seemed to charge into Bogut but with no call, and Green tapped the ball out to lead the break, but eventually airballed a three-pointer after receiving a swing pass. Still, Andre Iguodala stole Harden’s right side drive, and Barbosa managed to draw free throws on the other end.
The Warriors got as far up as 66-60 as Draymond tapped the ball out of Harden’s dribble with the shotclock winding down, then Harden fouled Green on the possession change. Curry got the switch versus Howard and took him down the right baseline for a layup, but Terry answered right back with a right elbow trey to halve the lead back to 66-63, Warriors, with 3:23 left.
Terry did well again to answer another score by the Warriors — one of two free throws by Barbosa after getting fouled on a cut catch — as the wily veteran attacked Festus Ezeli as Steph gambled with a double up top through a pick-and-roll on Harden.
But Terry missed a trey attempt after Ezeli buried two free throws, and the Warriors ran a play for Curry, who got the catch from Ezeli’s screen on the left elbow, and swished the triple upon the catch from Draymond up top, to give the Dubs a 72-65 lead.
Iguodala then tapped the dribble of Harden out, Harden’s 11th turnover of the game, and Green fed the streaking Andre for an uncontested dunk, giving Golden State a 74-65 lead with 1:05 remaining.
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Kerr employed Barbosa for the Hack-A-Dwight one more time, but Howard made both, and the Warriors took a 74-68 lead into the final frame.
4TH QUARTER: Black Falcon, The Real Black Falcon!
Thompson returned to the game with 11:44 to play, in for Curry, but after Terry turned the ball over to Barnes, who found Klay who found Iguodala for the run-out dunk, Howard threw the ball out of bounds to the sideline and on the next play, Ariza bit on a Klay fake and his knee clocked Thompson in the face, sending him to the locker room for concussion protocols.
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With a scorer now badly needed, Barnes stepped up, getting a stop and pop on the next inbound, drilling a trey from the right side, assisted by Iguodala, and going strong into the hole, past Howard, for a scoop that put the Warriors up, 85-72, with 8:04 left as McHale took a timeout to stop the Rockets’ bleeding.
Barnes’ confidence skyrocketed, and although a spin and up-fake isolated in the paint against Howard might have been a bit too ambitious — it was blocked by Dwight — Harden came down and lost the ball down the right lane, his 12th turnover, to Steph and Curry found Barnes in the corner.
Harrison up-faked a three, attacked the paint, and threw down a one-handed tomahawk.
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Corey Brewer answered back quickly, with a spin and putting back his own miss at the rim, but the frenetic style was to Golden State’s favor, as Curry made a pass in the lane that got deflected, ended up in Ezeli’s hands, and as Dwight shifted over, Festus dunked the ball through, giving the Dubs an 89-74 lead with 6:43 to play.
But the Warriors got sloppy, as a swing pass to Curry on the left side from Iguodala was stolen by Brewer for a run-out slam, then Steph’s pass up top down low was deflected, although Terry couldn’t cash in on the in-transition three.
Iguodala missed a baseline spin jumper from the left with no one underneath, and Brewer came back again with a drive to Howard for a dunk and Kerr burned a timeout to regroup Golden State, its lead down to 89-80 with 4:49 left.
McHale had the Rockets apply full-court pressure, and Iguodala eventually found Green open on the left wing for a three-pointer, which missed, but Ezeli got the putback dunk, then Howard seemed to push Draymond into Ariza’s three-point attempt up top, but Green got called for the foul, and Ariza made all three fouls shots.
Later, after Ariza missed an early, perhaps ill-advised trey from the left wing, Iguodala found Barnes in transition for the left-to-right dunk through the lane on the fastbreak.
Howard then committed a dirty foul on Iguodala, using his elbow to the face, but it caught Iguodala’s shoulder. However, during the referee review, Iguodala had time to recover from the injury. The refs ruled the play a common foul, but Andre inbounded the ball on the side out.
Curry got by Terry for a flip shot over Howard, and the Warriors had their biggest lead, 97-83, approaching 3 minutes remaining.
Ezeli inexplicably reached in on a Harden drive down the left side and Curry had some emphatic words with Festus, but Harden missed the second foul shot as #Roaracle came alive.
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Curry then pulled from the left arc and airballed, although he felt he was fouled, jawing at referee Ken Mauer as Mauer gave Steph “the hand”.
But even as Green sent an alley oop attempt to Ezeli on a drive down the left side out of bounds, as Barnes missed a wide-open jumper from the left elbow, and as Iguodala missed four straight free throws on intentional hacks by Houston, the Rockets were running out of time.
Terry missed two threes in a row and the second one hit the top of the backboard, out of bounds, with 1:25 to go and the Warriors up, 97-88.
Curry went down the lane, his righty bank shot missed, but Draymond tipped it in and that was it for the Rockets.
Harden missed a three, then committed his 13th turnover with Green defending him near halfcourt, with 38.7 to play.
With the jitters, Curry missed both free throws, but it didn’t matter, the lead was too great and the Warriors’ bench, including Thompson, celebrated…
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…Steph got fouled once more after drawing three shots from beyond the arc, and after making it 104-90, Warriors, Harden dribbled the game clock out in defeat.
For the first time in forty years, the Warriors advanced to the NBA Finals, winning the series, 4-1.
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @thelaurenberson)
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