Pacers complete season sweep with 126-106 win over Warriors

Photo credit: @warriors

By: Ana Kieu

The Golden State Warriors were hoping to extend their win streak to four games with a road win over the Indiana Pacers at the Bankers Life Fieldhouse Thursday night. Did it happen? Nope.

The Warriors’ starting lineup featured Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, JaVale McGee, Klay Thompson and Quinn Cook.

Golden State was ready to play basketball in the Pacers’ arena, which was supposedly built for basketball. McGee helped the Warriors get off to a good start with a nifty shift early in the first quarter. Durant also played a major role in the Warriors’ early start as he knocked down quite a few shots.

The Pacers, however, got on top with a 15-9 lead midway through the first. Around that time, Indiana benefited from Golden State’s four turnovers.

Glenn Robinson III went up for the pass from Lance Stephenson. The Pacers continued to dominate and merely led the Warriors 27-26 at the end of the first.

The Warriors tied the game at 28 apiece to start the second quarter. Golden State had a strong finish and Damian Jones converted on a three-point play. Thompson also made quite a few three-pointers and showed Warrior fans that he was in Splash Brother mode.
With two of those first-half threes, Thompson (1,543 career three-pointers) has passed Tim Hardaway (1,542) for 25th place on the NBA’s all-time threes list.

Despite the fact that Thompson had 13 points in the second and 16 to end the first half, the Warriors trailed the Pacers by 11 (62-51) at halftime.

Durant continued to make it rain with threes in the third quarter. Then, Green pulled up for a three of his own to surprise the Warrior fans and make them say “wow!” When Green hit his 435th career three, he passed Baron Davis (434) for seventh place on the Warrior’s all-time threes list.

Despite the Warriors’ flawless plays, they trailed the Pacers by 20 (97-77) at the end of the third.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr kept telling his team to keep going and playing fast. Apparently, Golden State listened to Kerr since they went on a 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter. And, just like that, the Warriors were back in the game as Durant headed to the three-point line to hit a trey midway through the fourth.

The Warriors were down by 14 with a little over eight minutes left in the fourth, but Victor Oladipo and the Pacers continued to bring their A-game to the court even though they weren’t the defending NBA champions.

Pacers’ Bojan Bogdanovic hit a three of his own to make it a 21-point game for the home team. At the moment, Bogdanovic was 11-for-13 from the floor. The Warriors weren’t happy with this deep deficit at all.

The Warriors tried their best to claw their way back into the game, but they fell short by 20 points to the Pacers (126-106), who swept the season series this year.

Here are the Warriors’ final stats:

Notes
Warriors’ PR provided an update on Patrick McCaw just moments before the game.

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Warriors’ injury update: Kevon Looney (flu-like symptoms) is available to play. Nick Young (flu-like symptoms) is available to play. Andre Iguodala (left knee soreness) is out.

Up Next
The Warriors return home to host the New Orleans Pelicans Saturday, April 7 at 5:30 pm PT.

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