ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Charlotte Hornets at the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors took a 77-56 lead into halftime.
Q3: Chef Saving The Best For Last
Draymond Green started the third quarter with a corner triple, then Klay Thompson lobbed sky-high to JaVale McGee for a smash and the harm:
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With 7:51 remaining, the Warriors held an 89-62 lead, then McGee swatted Spencer Hawes, but Hawes got his own put-back.
Stephen Curry picked up where he left off, swishing a trey over Hawes…
[protected-iframe id=”8eb06a53eec16f3560bd1252f422a8f8-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FNBA%2Fstatus%2F827020157784567808″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″]…then going lefty baseline for an easy-looking lay-in as Hornets head coach Steve Clifford took a timeout again with 6:17 to go, Golden State now owning a thirty-point bulge at 94-64.
Kerr inserted Anderson Varejao, who got a tip-in of KD’s miss, Durant hit another midranger, but Michael Kidd-Gilchrist got a layup, then so did Marco Belinelli, and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout with 4:06 to go, Golden State still sporting a 98-71 lead.
About the only thing that could curb the Warriors’ momentum were two replay reviews on fast breaks. One was Belinelli stopping a Durant attack and the other was a nice steal by Patrick McCaw. Neither was called for a flagrant or clear path, respectively.
It wasn’t until Curry hit a long step-back two-pointer from the left wing with 1:25 left when some sparks flew again as they did in the first half.
Steph followed that up with a fading triple that splashed over Frank Kaminsky…
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McCaw barely missed a two-hand slam of his own going left baseline with the foul, but he missed both free throws, then Kaminsky drew a foul with 18.6 seconds remaining.
Andre Iguodala setup the Golden State offense at the other end, with Curry curling around the deep perimeter.
Steph caught the ball in stride while turning upward towards Iguodala, pivoted, and splashed another three over Kaminsky, giving him 11 triples on 15 attempts from deep on the night and 39 points in total:
[protected-iframe id=”21605bafba5ae9df513379ecf02b30df-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FKNBR%2Fstatus%2F827024095095115780″ width=”360″ height=”260″ frameborder=”0″]The Warriors took a 108-83 lead into the final frame.
Q4:
Q4: Welcome To The NBA, DJ
James McAdoo continued his recent string of good flashes as he got a back-cut fed by Klay for a layup.
This was followed up by a Draymond deflection leading to a McCaw steal, plus nice post defense by Thompson, but no buckets out of it.
Kaminsky finally scored in the paint and a disgruntled Kerr called timeout with 9:11 remaining, still up plenty, 110-89.
Kaminsky scored again on a fade-away out of the timeout, but Klay struck back, hitting an off-balance catch-and-shoot from Durant for three.
Later, McCaw added a splash and Iguodala got a reverse layup on the break after Klay stole the ball.
With 5:31 to play, the Warriors lead ballooned back up to 120-96.
With 4:07 to go, rookie Damian Jones finally checked in with Golden State up, 120-100. With Ian Clark, McCaw, Looney, and McAdoo in the game already, that meant the average age of the Warriors on the floor was only 22 years old.
Looney got a chase-down block but it was a foul, Clark got a tough shot to go in the lane, then finally approaching two minutes, McAdoo crossed over into the lane and gave an under-hand toss to Jones for a two-handed smash, his first NBA basket.
Jones added a block on the next possession, plus an offensive rebound that led to free throws for Clark, and the game ended unceremoniously shortly thereafter with a final score of 126-111.
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