AT&T CENTER, SAN ANTONIO, TX — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors (3-0) at the San Antonio Spurs (0-3), Game 4 of the 2017 Western Conference Finals.
The Warriors took a 65-51 lead into halftime.
Q3: Durant Silences The Crowd
Patrick McCaw started the third quarter despite tweaking his ankle in the first half, and Klay Thompson hit his first shot, a triple:
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A Kevin Durant hit a three to put the Warriors up, 76-56, then after a timeout, Curry hit from the left baseline on a driving banker.
After a nice feed from Steph to Klay at the rim, Curry hit a three on the catch from the right side, but Jonathon Simmons put back his own miss at the rim, Bryn Forbes upfaked Durant and hit a jumper off the dribble.
That pulled the Spurs to within 85-75 with 2:49, the crowd was on its feet, but KD silenced them with a crossover step-back from the right elbow for his 24th and 25th points:
[protected-iframe id=”5a4b2724d9e4abf8de3ebb96da5e0a5f-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F866847947647889408″ width=”360″ height=”225″ frameborder=”0″]Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich called timeout, but Andre Iguodala got a steal, then smoked a reverse layup on the break, however, the pace eventually led to a Draymond Green three-pointer.
After that, Curry crossed over Forbes on the right arc and drilled a trey to put the Warriors back up by twenty, 95-75, with 54.7 seconds to play:
[protected-iframe id=”f153ef5c53d5ed7809ec816b606f146b-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FNBAcom%2Fstatus%2F866849369210982400″ width=”360″ height=”225″ frameborder=”0″]Kyle Anderson made an impressive driving dunk against Matt Barnes with 11.4 seconds to go, Steph missed a three, Shaun Livingston missed two free throws, and Golden State took a 96-78 lead into the final frame.
The Warriors hit six threes in the quarter:
[protected-iframe id=”79234a26b7c808e15f6b0ecda271416d-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FNBATV%2Fstatus%2F866850782750101504″ width=”360″ height=”225″ frameborder=”0″]Q4:
Pau Gasol and Manu Ginobili got buckets for San Antonio to start the fourth quarter, but Iguodala drove in and got an and-one against Gasol, then Dejounte Murray muffed a pass and Iguodala got a run-out two-hand smash.
Popovich called timeout as the Warriors lead pushed back up to 101-82 with 10:18 left.
Out of the timeout, Thompson used some upfakes to go to the line twice, Durant came back in and pulled up for a jumper, but the Spurs got a mini-run, with Ginobili providing sparks with a three in transition and a righty scoop against Durant.
David West was left wide-open and he took a dribble and hit a jumper, Kyle Anderson stole the ball from KD, but blew the layup at the other end and a put-back by Patty Mills missed, with no call, much to Mills’ chagrin, and Durant hit a jumper at the other end (again).
After Gasol scored inside, Ian Clark swished a triple from the left side from Draymond on the catch, keeping the Spurs at bay with a 115-100 cushion approaching five minutes to play.
Out of a timeout, Curry hit another three, Clark added one more, Steph tacked on a long two, and with 2:54 remaining, the Warriors had a stranglehold on the game, 122-106.
With 2:23 left, the Warriors intentionally fouled to get their starters off the floor, the crowd chanted, “Manu!”, not knowing if he just played his last game as a Spur, and Damian Jones even added an impressive jump hook as Golden State (4-0) closed out the sweep of San Antonio, 129-115, to advance to the 2017 NBA Finals.
The Warriors will fly home tomorrow morning, then have nine days to rest before the Finals begin at Oracle Arena on Thursday, June 1st, 2017.
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