STAPLES CENTER, LOS ANGELES, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Clippers took a 53-46 lead into the third frame.
3RD QUARTER: #SplashBrothers Change Momentum
After two straight quarters of getting off on the wrong foot, namely being off-target on their shots, the Warriors were laser-focused coming into the third period.
Blake Griffin and David Lee traded buckets to start and JJ Redick drilled a triple. However, the Warriors came back with patience and ball movement as Andrew Bogut waited for Stephen Curry to free himself from the clutches of Chris Paul on a cut to the hoop.
Eventually, the Clippers would miss, and it was a Paul airball followed by a DeAndre Jordan putback disrupted by Bogut, plus Klay Thompson posting up on the smaller Paul on the left block for a turnaround swish that brought the Warriors closer, 58-55, with 8:54 to play in the third.
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Thompson the microwave was turned on as he followed that up with a catch-and-fade from the top of the circle, then got switched against Griffin deep on the left elbow and drained the triple in front of him, to cut the Clippers’ lead to 62-60 with 7:19 to go.
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After David Lee had a hard common foul against Griffin, slapping down and grabbing the bigger Griffin under the basket, Curry continued the hot shooting by wheeling around the perimeter and nailing a stop-and-pop long two-pointer, but Matt Barnes answered back with a deep right corner trey over the closing Harrison Barnes, assisted by Griffin’s attack and dish off.
After Paul missed a trey from up top, Curry came back, juked him again, and drilled another long two in transition. Then after Redick missed a catch-and-shoot on the left elbow, Thompson stopped and popped in transition from the left elbow, tying the ball game at 67-67 with 5:23 remaining. As Clippers head coach Doc Rivers called timeout, Klay met the celebrating Marreese Speights for a side bump.
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Griffin and Lee once again traded buckets and, after Lee fouled Griffin on a cut into the paint, Curry had an amazing three-pointer from the right elbow. Draped by Paul, Curry received a pass from Leandro Barbosa, faked a mini-jab to his right and, instead, fired the ball from beyond the arc. Swish!
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That momentarily gave the Warriors an improbable 72-71 lead, but Paul answered back with an immediate jumper in return.
After a series of buckets going back and forth, Paul eventually shook free of Curry on the dribble drive and drew an and-one foul to pull ahead, 82-78, with 1:37 remaining as Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout.
The quarter ended weirdly as Speights got a dunk over Glen Davis (aka “Big Baby”)…
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…but on the ensuing inbound by the Clippers, trampled over Paul. The referees reviewed the replay and ruled a technical foul on Speights, plus a common foul. With the Warriors in the penalty, that resulted in three straight free throws for Paul.
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So what should have been a fantastic, in-your-face play by Speights turned out to be a minus-one on the scoreboard for the Dubs. The Clippers took an 86-80 lead with 1:16 remaining.
Curry drew a foul on Matt Barnes on a penetration into the lane on a dish off, but after the Warriors got the ball back when Barnes missed a three from up top, Curry tried a cross-court lefty sling pass to an open Speights, but the pass sailed too much and Griffin easily intercepted it. The run-out was a swooping layup that would have been a dunk if Andre Iguodala had not hustled back to provide minimal defense against the streaking Griffin.
After Speights missed a jumper in-and-out with Curry motioning for the ball as the quarter waned, Big Baby got the ball at halfcourt, spun past Steph to the delight of the Staples crowd, then got the ball to Paul, set a hard pick on Curry, but Paul eventually missed the jumper at the buzzer.
Steph wasn’t happy about the screen set by Davis, but only had brief words with the referee after the horn.
The Clippers took an 88-82 lead into the final frame.
4TH QUARTER: Iguodala Sinks Three Critical Free Throws
Doc inserted Spencer Hawes to start the fourth against a Warriors lineup up Shaun Livingston, Barbosa, Harrison Barnes, Iguodala, and Speights.
“Mo” took advantage of the mismatch, getting a catch-and-dribble runner to fall, then making a jab step on Hawes and pulling up to pull the Warriors to within two, 88-86, with 11:09 left.
Doc had seen enough and re-inserted Jordan for Hawes.
But Mo wasn’t done, feeding Iguodala at the rim for a near two-handed dunk that was fouled by Jordan, then getting an offensive putback with the left hand on a miss by Harrison. Barbosa then picked Austin Rivers as Rivers drove by him, and Doc called a twenty-second timeout after Iguodala got fouled at the rim on the ensuing fastbreak.
The Warriors held a 91-88 lead with 9:52 to play, but Paul drew free throws on Speights in transition, then Thompson missed a runner, got the offensive rebound, then put up a prayer reverse under the rim in heavy traffic, then later missed an open three-pointer trailing in transition.
Griffin got a left elbow jumper to swish on the usual sharp-angled pass by Paul and the Clippers took a 94-91 lead with Kerr calling timeout with 6:56 to go.
Out of the timeout, Lee set a side pick for Klay and he drilled a three-pointer with Iguodala delivering the assist. The game was tied, 94-94.
Golden State took the lead at 96-94 when Paul’s pull up jumper went too hard and Bogut rebounded it and found Lee for a touchdown pass with a righty for the layup.
After Griffin drew Bogut’s fourth foul driving into his chest, Klay drove hard into the paint, stopped, did a piruoette, and faded back to the left baseline and swished it…
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…But later, after Bogut drew a charge on the bull-headed Griffin…
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…Thompson missed a one-handed dunk attempt over Griffin and, thinking he was fouled, forced a little too much contact on defense in defending Redick and fouled him. The Warriors were in the penalty and Redick drained both from the charity stripe to tie it at 98-98 with 4:03 to play.
Bogut added a bunny shot thanks to a nice spin move by Iguodala that got the Clippers back on their heels, then Bogut swatted Griffin as Griffin put his head down and charged like a thirsty bull sensing the weaker Lee as his primary defender, but Curry missed a curl-and-catch off the back rim and Paul drew Bogut’s fifth personal on a probing dribble to the left baseline. The free throws by Paul tied the game again at 100-100 with 3:11 to go.
The Warriors then ran a misdirection play off of Curry, as Iguodala delivered the ball to Lee underneath while Los Angeles expected Steph to receive the ball on an upcut, but Lee only made one of two throws.
Redick missed a three, and Thompson then drew a foul on Matt Barnes, giving him just a little fake to draw enough contact. Klay’s free throws gave the Warriors a 103-100 lead with 2:20 remaining.
Paul and Curry traded misses, then Griffin got iso’ed on Lee on the right elbow and took him strong right-handed, drawing help from Bogut. As Griffin dished off to Jordan underneath, Bogut was left helping two people and fouled Jordan. That was Bogut’s sixth personal and he was replaced by Speights.
Jordan made the first, to the surprise of the Clippers crowd, then Lee moved too early on the second free throw, trying to box out Matt Barnes, and was called for lane violation as Jordan missed the second. So the second free throw was redone and Jordan made that one. The Warriors led just 103-102 with 1:26 to go.
On the next play, Klay found himself iso’ed after various hand-offs up top, against Redick, couldn’t quite get past him and found Iguodala wide open as Barnes showed help. Iguodala drew a foul on the three-pointer as the refs ruled that Barnes didn’t allow Iguodala to land. Andre made all three from the charity stripe, just enough for the separation needed.
Iguodala then made a tremendous play on defense after their small lineup had Speights and Curry switched. Steph was suddenly guarding Griffin with the ball and nearing the paint. Iguodala was manned up with the bigger Jordan and, when Griffin attempted a cross-court pass to an open shooter, Andre deflected the ball out of bounds.
The shotclock was already low and on the ensuing inbound, Paul had to heave a desperation three that only drew iron as the shotclock buzzer sounded.
After Speights missed a banker, Paul got a layup going around Curry and Lee, but the Clippers were running out of time. There was only 12.9 ticks left on the clock and they were forced to foul Steph, who made both free throws.
With 11 seconds remaining, Golden State was up 108-104 and Los Angeles had Jordan inbounding to Paul, who was trapped by Harrison and Klay. That bothered Paul enough to mishandle the catch and the ball went into the backcourt, with the referee taking an extra half-second to make the correct call of backcourt violation.
Thompson made two more free throws as Paul fouled him on the overhead inbound and Paul came back with an uncontested layup on the other end for the final score of 110-106, Warriors.
Curry totaled 27 points and Thompson added 25, 7-for-13 combined from downtown, to withstand Griffin’s 40 on 16-for-25 field and 12 rebounds. Paul added 27 points, 9 assists, and Redick scored 14 points while Jordan grabbed 15 rebounds.
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