This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Washington Wizards. The Warriors took a 54-51 lead into halftime.
3RD QUARTER: Curry And Speights Again Help Maintain Warriors Lead
The Warriors’ Big Three this season, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green, played a key role in the start of the second half. Each of them hit a three-pointer and, after Green hit his second of the night from the left elbow on a Curry assist, Wizards head coach Randy Wittman called a timeout with 7:12 remaining and the Dubs up, 68-62.
But it was Warriors head coach Steve Kerr calling the next timeout after John Wall hit two straight buckets quickly to tie the game, 68-68, with 5:53 to play. Washington was shooting 58% at the time, although they had committed 20 turnovers.
Out of the timeout, Curry drilled a jumper, but missed the next two times, but Marreese Speights came to the rescue again, swishing a jumper to make it 74-73, Warriors, with 4:08 to go in the quarter.
However, Golden State couldn’t gain any momentum or separation, even on seemingly good plays, as Green rebounded a Paul Pierce fade-away miss, but got the ball poked away by Garrett Temple. Nene Hilario picked up the loose ball with the remaining seven players on the other end of the court. Nene fed the ball back to Temple for the easy two, keeping the Wizards close, down one.
But Curry and Speights buoyed the Warriors yet again, with Speights tapping in his own miss and Curry draining a trey up top, assisted by Speights, followed by a jumper by Steph after drawing oohs and ahhs from the Verizon Center crowd, freeing himself with a few moves.
Then he had this incredible teardrop shot after juking Ramon Sessions from the right elbow with a left-to-right behind-the-back dribble.
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Sessions cut the lead to 86-83 at the end of three with two free throws after driving hard to the basket. Curry led all scorers with 27 points on 10-for-16 field, 5-for-9 downtown, to go along with 7 assists, and zero turnovers.
4TH QUARTER:
The bench unit of Shaun Livingston, Leandro Barbosa, Harrison Barnes, Andre Iguodala, and David Lee got the start for the fourth frame.
Iguodala’s All-NBA stealthiness was on full display again as he posted his third steal of the night, the Wizards’ whopping 23rd turnover, resulting in an early-offense layup by Livingston.
At the 7:40 mark after a TV timeout, Lee converted a layup assisted by Iguodala and the Warriors held a slim 94-90 lead.
Iguodala added to his great play with a stop-and-pop after rebounding a missed Rasual Butler three-pointer and bringing the ball up, surveying the situation with no one freeing open.
Wittman called another timeout as Thompson gave the Dubs a little bit of separation by converting a left-handed drive down the left side of the lane after a nice move, giving Golden State a 98-92 lead with 6:07 to play.
Klay added another driving layup, going right to left on Kris Humphries after a switch, determined to take advantage of the mismatch.
After Nene scored at the rim with another assist from Wall and Curry draped over him with Green helping, Iguodala drilled a triple from the left corner to make it 105-99 with 3:50 remaining.
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Iguodala added to his heroics again on defense, deflecting Nene’s backdoor pass attempt, then Curry took a charge on Wall shortly thereafter, celebrating while on the ground after the collision.
After a timeout with 2:59 to play and Golden State up, 105-99, Barnes got a dunk as the defense expected Thompson to pop up for the inbound, and Curry answered a nice lefty layup by Wall, by going hard right and high off the backboard for the pretty banker layup, via a pick-and-roll with Nene switching from Green’s screen.
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Curry then drew a foul from beyond the arc on another PNR with Green, as Wall lunged out with Nene helping and in front of Curry. Steph made all three shots to stretch the lead to 112-104 with just 1:02 to play.
Thompson, who had 3 turnovers, nearly committed a costly one, but unsung hero Iguodala managed to pick the ball up, passed it to Barnes, who missed a wide-open trey, and Klay tipped the loose board back to Andre, who was fouled with 32.3 ticks remaining and the Warriors up 112-106.
Iguodala missed both free throws, but an entanglement between Green and Nene led to a foul called on Draymond, and Nene missed the first and made the second from the charity stripe.
After a timeout by Kerr to advance the ball, this time it was Curry with the near-turnover, but Green got the loose ball and found Klay, who was fouled and iced the game, 114-107. Wall tried to get off a three as time was expiring, but Green blocked it and Thompson blocked Wall again after the follow-up desperation heave.
Curry ended with 32 points on 11-for-18 from the field, 5-for-9 from downtown, and 8 assists to go along with no turnovers. Thompson added 17, Speights had 16 off the bench, Green had 13 as well as 6 rebounds and 5 assists, and Barnes added 11. Lee had 10 rebounds off the bench.
Pierce led the Wizards with 25 points on an efficient 7-for-11 field and 9-for-9 from the free throw line. Wall had 16 points and 11 assists and Marcin Gortat had 16 points and 11 rebounds.
The Warriors will be in Cleveland in two nights to face the surging Cavaliers.
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