This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the Utah Jazz.
The Jazz took a 46-35 lead into the third quarter.
3RD QUARTER: Snyder Holds Ground vs Kerr’s Small Lineup
The third quarter started out sluggish for the Warriors and, for the first time in a long time, Andrew Bogut wasn’t a factor.
Derrick Favors started the second half by blocking Draymond Green at the rim. Stephen Curry stole an ill-advised Favors dribble-drive, then Curry drew three defenders and delivered the ball to Harrison Barnes underneath for a dunk, but followed that up with a fatigued step-back jumper with the taller Enes Kanter switched on him. Klay Thompson followed that up with his own missed non-confident shot from three-point range, and Gordon Hayward gave Barnes a shoulder-fake for an uncontested left-handed layup.
With the Jazz now up 63-47 with 9:14 to play in the third period, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr went small by bringing in Andre Iguodala for Bogut, essentially moving Green to the center position. However, Jazz head coach Quin Snyder stuck with his big lineup of Favors and Kanter up front.
Warriors beatwriter Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle reported from the sidelines that Kerr told the team, “We’ve got to spread them out.”
While Golden State’s offense continued to sputter, their defense picked up. Green’s steal led to a hard foul on the fastbreak by Gordon Hayward and Trey Burke airballed a shot, leading to a shotclock violation.
Offensively, Curry put the Warriors on his shoulders, getting a floater to fall, drawing free throws, and hitting from downtown via pick-and-rolls with Green.
Curry even threw an elbow on Elijah Millsap, but only enough to draw the referee’s attention on a sideout inbound. The ref agreed, and whistled Millsap, giving Curry two more from the charity stripe.
Still, the Dubs made some untimely turnovers. Green simply mishandled the ball that resulted in a dunk putback by Rudy Gobert on the resultant fastbreak. The next possession, Barnes zigged when Curry thought he would zag, and Curry’s pass sailed into the baseline seats.
The Jazz hero from the first half, Trevor Booker, continued his brilliant off-the-bench play with yet another three-pointer as the shotclock wound down, wasting the Warriors’ defensive efforts.
And with 50 seconds to play in the period, Curry drilled a three-pointer to give him 31 points, 15 in the quarter, but the Dubs still trailed by 13, 79-66, and even worse, Leandro Barbosa would cough up the next possession, leading to a Booker dunk as he and Hayward attacked Curry on the fastbreak.
David Lee got a lay-in with 1.1 ticks left, assisted by Andre Iguodala, but the Jazz still led, 81-68, heading into the final frame.
4TH QUARTER: Counter-Punched
Everytime the Warriors seemed to gather momentum, the Jazz got a big counter-punch to thwart the comeback.
Lee got a right-handed floater over the seven-foot Rudy Gobert to cut the lead to 11, but backup guard Elijah Millsap (younger brother of Paul) answered with a three-pointer.
Thompson made a couple moves and got past Hayward with the strong right hand with the ball trickling in, but Gobert threw down an alley oop delivered by Trey Burke.
And after Curry made a nice move on the right side, only to get blocked by Favors, his third of the game, Bogut tapped the offensive rebound to Thompson, who threw up an uncharacteristic line-drive trey from 28 feet, hitting the front rim hard, with Curry chasing the clank out bounds, to no avail. Klay was visibly upset with his bad shot, and Kerr called timeout as the Warriors found themselves still down 90-77 with 8:22 to play.
But the woes continued as Burke made a trey out of the timeout and, even though Lee made a tough running jumper flanked by two Jazz defenders, Burke followed that up with a banker from the right side over Bogut.
Kerr replaced Curry, who had played the entire second half up until this point, with Justin Holiday and 6:39 left, down 95-79.
It looked as though the Warriors were cooked after Hayward got his own rebound among three Warriors — Thompson, Lee, and Bogut — and Klay gave Hayward a fatigued, frustrated hack, sending him to the line. Even after Green checked back in, on a Hayward miss, Gobert got yet another offensive rebound, missed, got his own miss, and got the second putback to go, with the harm.
Kerr called another Warriors timeout, now down 97-81 with 6:11 to play. Gobert missed the bonus free throw, but it hardly mattered as time was winding down and the Jazz lead stayed at a hefty double-digits.
Yet, Barbosa made things interesting, draining two threes and getting a fade-away bankshot on the left side over Booker to fall, to make it a not-impossible 103-93 with 2:19 remaining:
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Snyder called timeout and, just when #DubNation got a glimmer of hope, Hayward shot it down, with a three-pointer out of the timeout.
It seemed like that was all she wrote after Shaun Livingston missed a running jumper, but on the next play, Lee blocked a shot and Livingston delivered a pin-point touchdown pass to Barbosa to finally trim the lead under double-digits, 106-97 with 54 seconds to play.
Barbosa made things even more interesting after drilling another one from downtown as the Warriors got the ball back, making it a two-possession game at 106-100 with 26 seconds left. Golden State then intentionally fouled Burke.
Burke missed the first and his second free throw hit back rim, but small forward Joe Ingles got the reach over a poor box-out by Lee, and Ingles got to shoot two more free throws, making a miracle comeback all but impossible for Golden State.
The final score was 110-100, Utah.
Curry led all scorers with an MVP-like 32 points on 10-for-22 field, 5-for-11 downtown, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals, and 2 turnovers.
But aside from Barbosa’s 15 points off the bench, Curry got no help. Outside of Curry, the Warriors combined to shoot 27-for-64 (42%).
Barnes only had 4 points, Bogut only had 4 rebounds, Holiday was off-kilter, and Marreese Speights was 1-for-7.
Golden State was also out-rebounded, 55-41, by Utah.
Hayward shined for the Jazz with 26 effortless points, 15 rebounds, and 6 assists. Gobert and Kanter combined for 20 rebounds and the bench duo of Burke and Booker combined for 32 points, 9 rebounds, and 10 assists.
Fortunately for the Warriors, they don’t have much time to simmer with this loss, flying back tonight to the Bay to face the Phoenix Suns at Oracle Arena. Also, Golden State dropped to Number Two in the NBA in the standings at 36-8, as the Atlanta Hawks now lead the league with a 39-8 record.
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