This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Warriors took a 48-38 lead into the third quarter.
3RD QUARTER: Klay Heats Up
Stephen Curry started the second half on the wrong foot, committing an early turnover, his fifth of the game, and exacerbating by committing his third personal foul.
But he came right back and drilled a trey as Klay Thompson attacked the baseline, stopped, and passed back up beyond the arc to the awaiting Steph on a catch-and-shoot.
The Warriors had some nice offensive sequences, such as a backdoor reverse lefty layup by Klay, knowing that Giannis Antetokounmpo would fly by for the block attempt at the rim, as well as an Andrew Bogut alley oop on a lob by Curry.
But after Khris Middleton drilled a midrange right baseline jumper, Curry caught a ball in the paint on offense and tried to immediately get it Harrison Barnes on the right side. However, the pass was wild and sailed into the courtside seats.
Curry continued his choppy play, as he found Thompson in transition from the right elbow for three points after Klay had knocked away a pass, but then fouled Michael Carter-Williams at the free throw line on a jumper, Curry’s third personal, which sent him to the bench. Shaun Livingston subbed in.
David Lee added a nice righty hook and Barnes had a beautiful drive to the hole that ended with a lefty finger roll, while Middleton answered with another baseline J from the left side that swished through.
But Thompson started to heat up, getting a jumper to drop before the shotclock buzzer, a left baseline swish, a dribble in, then a stop, spin, and fade jumper, followed by a left elbow trey after Livingston probed the deep right side with the dribble.
Klay tallied 14 points in the quarter up to that point and Bucks head coach Jason Kidd called timeout to stop the bleeding, with the Warriors up 73-57 with 3:50 to go in the third.
The quarter closed out with Marreese Speights assisting Lee on a layup, then drawing a charge on Jerryd Bayless, and Thompson finding Lee wide open for a left elbow jumper as the shotclock was about to expire.
Klay wasn’t finished, as Livingston attacked the paint with the quarter clock drawing to a close. OJ Mayo collapsed on his man, Thompson, and Klay got the catch on the kick-out and easily drilled the trey.
The Warriors took a commanding 82-63 lead into the final frame.
4TH QUARTER: Speights, Curry, and McAdoo
With Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala sitting this game out for rest, Golden State started the fourth period with Curry, Leandro Barbosa, Brandon Rush, Speights, and James McAdoo.
The Bucks’ “stretch four”, Jared Dudley, hit three straight shots, with a crazy sequence involving Speights nicely stealing a pass, but then losing it right back to Dudley for a righty layup on the left side, sandwiched in between two catch-and-shoots.
Kerr called timeout with 9:21 remaining and the Warriors lead trimmed to 82-71.
But then “Chef Curry” got cooking again and he had Speights watching his back. “Mo” got two tip-ins, the first after McAdoo lost John Henson on a baseline spin, but recovered to smother the layup attempt, then Speights being the first to the jumpball tip. The second tip-in was on a Curry push shot that went to hard off rim.
Curry added a catch-and-shoot trey on the left elbow that gave him 17 points on 5-for-8 field, then a ridiculous manufactured long-ball as he mishandled his own dribble against Dudley, then dribbled away and back from Dudley, launching a three that swished through (!) as he retreated enough behind the line with the Bucks power forward still in chase.
That put Golden State up, 92-75, approaching six minutes to go.
McAdoo was energetic once again off the bench, getting a two-handed slam putback as Curry’s lefty dribble drive layup went a bit too hard off glass, then disrupting a nifty reverse layup attempt by Mayo, then going down the lane aggressively to earn two foul shots as the Bucks had no choice but to foul him on the fearless attack.
Meanwhile, Curry had a pretty reverse layup going right to left through the lane in transition, finishing with the right hand, then drilling his final trey as Livingston dissected past the perimeter to the free throw line, and shoveled the ball over to Steph.
With 2:53 remaining, the Bucks were done, down 99-83 to the Warriors as the game went into a TV timeout.
With 2:08 left, after Livingston fed Barnes similarly for a left corner trey, Thompson intentionally fouled Mayo to get Justin Holiday in for Curry, who finished with 25 points on 8-for-13 field, 6-for-9 downtown, 6 assists, but also 6 turnovers.
The Warriors won, 108-95, as Klay added 21 points on 8-for-17 shooting, 3-for-8 beyond the arc, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. Barnes added 13 and Lee, Speights, and even McAdoo all added 12 apiece.
Golden State committed 22 turnovers, but held Milwaukee to just 38% shooting (33-for-87), including 2-for-15 from downtown. Middleton led the Bucks with just 14 points and Ilyasova, Lee’s cover, went just 1-for-10 from the field.
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