This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the New York Knicks.
The Warriors took a 64-48 halftime lead as Draymond Green led the team with 16 points on 3-for-5 downtown while Stephen Curry tallied just 8 points and Klay Thompson only 5 points.
3RD QUARTER: Klay In “Sort Of” #GetBuckets Mode
Harrison Barnes got off to a nice second half start for the second straight game, getting two fade-aways to drop, then assisting Curry on a run-out layup after Langston Galloway missed another layup, adding to his woeful 3-for-11 shooting night.
Thompson then got Andrew Bogut an alley-oop dunk, giving Klay two assists for the game, compared to his one field goal made. That gave the Warriors a 74-52 lead with 8:55 to play in the third, and Knicks head coach Derek Fisher called timeout.
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Curry then faked a three-pointer on his tippy-toes as Knicks backup point guard Shane Larkin flew by. But Larkin grabbed Curry on his right arm as he flew by, and Steph launched from straightaway, and the ball banked home, plus the harm. Curry, however, would miss the free throw.
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The Knicks answered with three-pointers from Lance Thomas in the right corner and Jose Calderon from the right elbow and, with Thompson committing an unforced turnover over-lobbing a posting Green into the baseline seats, and Golden State head coach Steve Kerr called timeout with 7:35 to go in the third and the Warriors up, 77-59.
Despite the bad shooting, Thompson got a lot of attempts up out of the timeout, with Lee facilitating many of them. It was a rocky performance that sort of plateaued, starting with an airball on a dribble drive stop-and-pop from the free throw line after Green got a put back of a Curry miss late in the shotclock.
But Klay got a catch-and-shoot from beyond the arc, assisted by Lee, then a basket on a cut to the hole, also assisted by Lee, and by then Thompson had scored 7 straight points for the Warriors to give Golden State an 86-63 lead with 4:58 remaining in the quarter.
Klay then missed twice, on a shot from the left elbow that went in-and-out, and a fade-away from the right baseline posted up against the smaller Larkin, but Thompson swished a left elbow fade-away on another high post attempt, then Lee connected to him yet again on a cut.
That gave 16 quick points, but more impressively, Lee had tallied 10 points, 8 rebounds, and a team-leading 5 assists, as the Warriors led 91-70 with 1:27 left in the period.
However, a final post up with the quarter winding down and an entry pass by Shaun Livingston resulted in a turnover on Klay as the ball was tapped out. Tim Hardaway, Jr. converted the run-out dunk as Thompson threw his hands in the air, looking for a foul call from the referees that never came.
The Knicks trimmed the Warriors’ lead to 91-74 heading into the final frame. Green led all scorers with 20 points, to go along with 7 rebounds.
4TH QUARTER: Tired Warriors Go 8 Minutes Without A Field Goal
Marreese Speights got the Dubs off to a good start in the fourth quarter, getting a jump hook to go and two free throws on a shooting foul, but the momentum quickly subsided as Langston Galloway drew a foul on a three-pointer on Leandro Barbosa for a four-point play, hit another trey after a dribbling turnover by Shaun Livingston, and Hardaway drilled a triple, which was followed by an ugly miss from the right corner beyond the arc from Andre Iguodala.
After Speights missed a banker in the lane and he and Lee couldn’t tip it for an offensive rebound,
Galloway drew a shooting foul on Livingston. A TV timeout forced a break in the action and the Warriors lead had dwindled to 95-83 with 8:33 remaining in the game.
But the Golden State woes continued as Thompson made a bad one-handed left-handed pass to Lee in the high post, then missed a shot off rim. Galloway came back on the other end with a layup, missed too hard off the board, beating Klay off the dribble and drawing help from Green, but Quincy Acy slammed home the put back with two hands and, incredibly, the Knicks had cut the Warriors’ lead to single-digits, 95-86, with 7:34 to go.
Curry came back in shortly thereafter, but Thompson bricked a catch-and-shoot from the right elbow, as the pass was received below his waist and his feet were still wide and not set. New York couldn’t capitalize, however, as Larkin missed a trey, then turned the ball over dribbling too much and not knowing the shotclock was about to expire, even after Curry short-rimmed a flip shot in the lane.
The Knicks closed the gap to as close as 95-90 with 4:20 to play after Larkin made a runner on a cut to the hole, Curry airballed a deep two-pointer from the left corner after swing passes from Barnes and Green, Acy blocked a Thompson hammer attempt cleanly, and Larkin scored a fastbreak reverse layup after a bad pass by Draymond trying to go to the opposite wing from the high post. Of note on the turnover, Barnes had forced a switch on the pick-and-roll to face big man Jason Smith, but deferred the ball with the entry pass to Green.
New York actually had a few more opportunities, as Barnes missed one of two free throws after Green got an offensive rebound, tipping the ball to an open Harrison underneath who got fouled, then Acy beat Green on the left baseline but missed the layup as well as the tip back on the other side of the rim.
Barnes took the next possession to the cup and missed back iron while gliding through, but Iguodala got the put back jam — their first field goal in about eight minutes — and Fisher called timeout with 3:27 remaining and the Warriors up, 98-90.
The Warriors saw another advantage on the switch as Smith was once again caught on an island, this time against Curry, and Curry made a rather ill-advised step-back trey that toilet-bowled in, and Fisher called timeout again, now down 101-90 with 2:51 to play.
But Iguodala found Curry for a left elbow three-pointer, Galloway was short on a stop-and-pop against Green, and Steph got a sliding steal on defense, then made a couple of nifty dribbles to get out of harm’s way. Curry added a layup after the ball got tossed around in the perimeter, killing some clock, as Steph faked a three-pointer, then dribbled in, hesitated, and dribbled further down the lane, cocked the ball back a la Rajon Rondo and converted the scoop.
The final score was 106-92, Golden State. The #SplashBrothers were just 6-for-14 from deep, but Green scored 20 points on 8-for-12 shooting, was a team-high +23 on the plus-minus, and collected 13 rebounds. Curry’s three-pointers helped him reach 22 points, but he shot just 8-for-18 from the floor, although he was 5-for-9 from downtown — however, he finished with zero assists! Thompson seemed fatigued, with a 5-for-22 performance and just 2-for-6 from beyond the arc, although he finished with a respectable 16 points. Lee had 16 points off the bench and collected 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and Speights had 10 off the bench. Barnes had a quiet 12 points.
After the game, Kerr acknowledged the seemingly tired players: “We will chalk it up as mental fatigue.”
Galloway led the Knicks with 15 points, Smith added an almost-invisible 14, and Stoudamire had 13 off the bench. The Warriors are now 40-9 and will be in Philadelphia on Monday in two nights.
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