ORACLE ARENA, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Sacramento Kings at the Golden State Warriors.
3RD QUARTER: Ezeli Plays Solidly, Klay Turns It On
Festus Ezeli made some major progress in tonight’s game with a solid third quarter outing, first getting an inside bucket thanks to a feed into the paint by Stephen Curry, then slamming this one home after Curry dribbled into the interior, slapped the ball hard, and waited for just the right moment to deliver the ball to Ezeli.
Ezeli even played great defense on DeMarcus Cousins, moving his feet and back-pedaling on a Cousins drive that showed off “DMC’s” variety of spin moves. Ezeli didn’t lose his balance and retrieved Cousins’ miss at the rim. Festus later got a blocked shot on a DMC short jumper.
But Ezeli would take a seat after the block, replaced by Marreese Speights, and after having set a bad screen on isolated pick-and-roll action with Curry from the left side.
Speights seemed to block a Cousins finger roll, but the referee ruled it a goal-tend. Then the Warriors then extended their lead on the Kings as Klay Thompson curled around a screen near the block and made the one-handed runner.
After a Rudy Gay missed three-pointer, Draymond Green got the rebound, and took it coast-to-coast, ending it emphatically with two hands as the Kings played “matador” defense:
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That gave the Warriors an 84-69 lead with 3:59 to play in the third. Cousins would pick up his fourth personal fouling Green on an offensive rebound attempt, and to make matters worse for the Kings, they were in the penalty with as much as 2:10 remaining.
Shaun Livingston got a turnaround jumper, then Thompson then got his own turnaround jumper around the smaller Ray McCallum, and Thompson drove into the lane past Ben McLemore with a big first step for a layup, and after a McCallum buzzer-beater at the end of the third frame, the Warriors had a 93-76 lead.
Thompson scored 13 points in the quarter to total 25 and Ezeli added 7 in the quarter to push his total to 13 points on 6-for-8 from the field. Curry was up to 11 assists to go along with 12 points, while Speights added a quiet 12 points, getting 8 of those from the charity stripe.
4TH QUARTER: Holiday And Ezeli Put In Quality Work
Andre Iguodala finished up a productive night after hitting a three — assisted by Justin Holiday who had earned a start of the fourth quarter after effective first-half play — then finishing a strong move that gave the Warriors an insurmountable 100-77 lead with 9:18 to play.
Lee got a cutting layup assisted by Iguodala, then sat down as Lee had actually surpassed Kerr’s pregame prediction of a maximum of 15 minutes. With 6:57 to go, Brandon Rush subbed in for Iguodala, who finished with 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting, 2-for-3 from downtown.
Ezeli finished up his night by being called on a charge against Cousins, who added a little bit of extra flop to the end of it, but getting Cousins back on an ensuing possession as he got deep position in the paint and converted the turnaround bunny shot.
Holiday had a few extra sparks left in him, as he extended well on a McCallum three-point attempt. Livingston got the ball and saw that Holiday was being tracked in the early transition by Cousins, so Livingston motioned Holiday to cut through to the strong side corner, delivered a strike to Holiday, and Holiday squared himself in front of a hapless Cousins, and drilled the three.
Leandro Barbosa and Ognjen Kuzmic also checked in for mop-up work and Kuzmic and Rush even scored. The final score was 128-108, Warriors.
Thompson led all scorers with 25 points on 10-for-16 shooting, Ezeli finished with 15 points on 7-for-11 field, and Curry collected 12 points and 11 assists. Holiday had 18 points off the bench. Cousins led the Kings with 22 points on 9-for-19 field.
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