Photo credit: nba.com/warriors

By Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND — The Golden State Warriors routed the New Orleans Pelicans 123-101 to get off to a good start in the second round of the NBA playoffs. The Warriors’ head coach, Steve Kerr decided to go “small” as he started Nick Young at guard and went with Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Kevin Durant. None of the Warrior starters were over six-feet-seven inches tall except Durant. JaVale McGee played very little, and Zaza Pachulia sat on the bench.

The Warriors and Pelicans played a very competitive first quarter. The Warriors led by one 35-34 after the first 12 minutes of action, and it looked as if the game would be a nail-biter. The Pelicans led 12-11 early in the quarter and, although no one knew it at the time, it would be the last time the Pelicans would own the lead.

The Warriors dominated the second quarter. The outscored the Pelicans 41-21 to finish the half leading 76-55. At one point in the quarter, the Warriors went on a 24-2 run as they showed the Pelicans that they still knew how to play defense. Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson paced the Warrior offense with 18 points each. Draymond Green added 12, and Shaun Livingstone tallied 8. The Pelican’s Anthony Davis was the only starter in double-figures (12) for New Orleans.

The Warriors increased the lead to 29 by outscoring the Pelicans 27-19 to put the game on ice for Golden State. Kevin Durant and Draymond Green both sat out the fourth quarter as the Warriors coasted to victory. Kerr inserted McGee, Jordan Bell, and Damian Jones to finish the game. The Warriors win 123-101.

Game Notes: The Warriors won their 13th straight home playoff game. The 76 points scored in the first half set a team record as they scored 73 against the Phoenix Suns on May 4th, 1994. The 41 points in the second quarter beat the 40 they scored against Utah on May 11th, 2007.

Klay Thompson paced the offense with 27 points. Kevin Durant finished the night with a double-double as he knocked down 26 points and had 13 rebounds. Draymond Green was all over the court as he dazzled the fans with his fourth career triple-double. Draymond tallied 16 points, had 15 rebounds, and recorded 11 assists. Andre Iguodala had 12, Shaun Livingstone, 10 and Quinn Cook 11.

Anthony Davis led the Pelicans with 19, E’Tuan Moore had 15, Jrue Holiday 11, and Jordan Crawford 14. The Warriors dominated the board with 57 rebounds. They had 8 steals and 10 blocked shots. The Warriors did not commit a lot of fouls in the game. The Pelicans had 11 shots from the charity stripe and made 9. The Warriors went to the free-throw line 32 times and made 24.

The was a lot of speculation before the game as to the status of Steph Curry. Curry, who has not played very much since March 8th due to ankle and knee injuries, was ready to go, but the Warriors felt that he would be better off coming back for Game 2 on Tuesday night at Oracle Arena.

As usual, Curry insisted he “feels great, and he’s ready to go,” said Kerr, who is encouraged his superstar point guard feels so good.

“Just made the decision based on giving him the extra few days and the fact he only scrimmaged yesterday,” Kerr said. “You’ve been out five weeks, and we’re playing in the playoffs, I don’t think one scrimmage is enough, even though he feels great, he wants to play and pleaded his case. But we’re going to sit him tonight and very likely he’ll play Game 2.”

Up Next: Game 2 is at 7:30 pm PT on Tuesday night at Oracle Arena.