Author: rgsteward

AP Photo/Jonathan Bachman)

By Robert Steward

NEW ORLEANS–

It was anything but easy in the Big Easy. The Golden State Warriors had quite the battle on their hands with the New Orleans Pelicans, needing overtime to win their 16th in a row, 128-122, to run their NBA-best record to 21-2. It was a battle of backcourts, as the Warriors’ Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson went head-to-head with the opposing backcourt of Tyreke Evans and Jrue Holiday. The Warriors were without starting center Andrew Bogut, who missed his third straight game with tendinitis in his right knee. The Pelicans were also without their leading scorer, Anthony Davis, and his 24 points and 10 rebounds per game average.

Golden State opened the first quarter by shooting 55% from the floor, but New Orleans actually shot better at 61%.  The Warriors led 21-14 with 5:37 to go in the first before New Orleans went on an 8-0 run to go up, 22-21. The combination of Holiday, who had 10 points, along with Evans, who added 9, offset the hot hand of the Warriors’ Curry, who scored 13 on 5 for 7 from the floor, including 3 for 4 from 3-point range. However, the Warriors turned it over often and New Orleans converted those turnovers into points and led 31-28 when the quarter ended.

With 10:29 left in the second quarter, Golden State’s Harrison Barnes took an elbow to the mouth, following an aggressive pivot move by the Pelicans’ Dante Cunningham. Barnes was forced to leave the game and did not return for the rest of the first half. Two stitches were required to close the wound, and Coach Steve Kerr said in postgame remarks that Barnes will be visiting the dentist tomorrow. The injury to Barnes did not affect the Warriors, however, as Andre Iguodala came off the bench to spark the Warriors, hitting his first six shots, which included a strong dunk over the Pelicans’ Luke Babbitt on a long outlet pass from Draymond Green. Following a 12-2 run, Golden State led 48-41 with 4:13 left in the half. At the break, they had their biggest lead of the half, at 60-51, outscoring New Orleans, 32-20, in the second quarter. Despite the turnovers, the Warriors were strong on the boards, out-rebounding New Orleans, 18-8, in the quarter. Golden State’s bench was also a key factor, outscoring the Pelicans, 30-11, at the break.

In the third quarter, both teams mainly traded baskets, with the Warriors’ lead fluctuating between 7-10 points until 5:22 left in the quarter, with Golden State leading, 82-74. At this point in the game both teams’ backcourts were locked in quite a battle. The Warriors’ combo of Curry/Thompson had 40 points on 15 of 24 from the floor, including 6 for 10 from long range. The Pelicans were equal to the task with their combo of Evans/Holiday, who had 39 points on 17 of 27 shooting. Following a New Orleans timeout, the Warriors then played sloppy, turning the ball over three times, while missing two shots. New Orleans made the most of the opportunity and converted the mistakes into points, finishing an 11-0 run to take the lead at 83-82, forcing Golden State to call a timeout with 3:16 left in the quarter. But even with the timeout the Warriors still turned it over twice more, which New Orleans converted into more points, extending the run to 13 unanswered points before Golden State’s Shaun Livingston ended the streak by hitting a jumper to make it 85-84, New Orleans. When the quarter ended, the Warriors had been torched for 38 points, which was the most they had given up in any single quarter all year. Of course, when the team turns it over 7 times in a single quarter that doesn’t help. Both teams were tied at 89-89 heading into the 4th.

Although the Warriors took better care of the ball to start the 4th, it was the Pelicans who began to take control of the game behind the scoring of Evans, who had 8 of his team’s first 18 points of the quarter as New Orleans grabbed their biggest lead of the game at 107-99 with 4:16 left in the game. But with that much time and the shooting of the Warriors’ backcourt, it was more than enough for the Warriors to come back. Following a Pelican miss, Iguodala hit a 3 to finish a 7-0 run for Golden State, cutting the lead to 107-106 at the 3:10 mark. After Cunningham hit a jumper for New Orleans and Curry hit 2 free throws for Golden State to make it 109-108, New Orleans, Curry then drew a charge on Cunningham, which nullified a shot that would have extended the Pelicans’ lead. At the other end Curry airballed a short, off-balanced jumper that Marreese Speights grabbed out of the air and laid it off the glass all in one move to give Golden State the lead at 110-109 with 1:34 left.

Two free throws by Evans gave New Orleans the lead again at 111-110 with 1:22 left. On the Warriors’ next possession Curry made a bad pass, turning it over to the Pelicans but Evans missed a jumper with 49 seconds left. Iguodala missed a 3-pointer but Speights came up with a big offensive rebound and was fouled. He converted 1 of 2 for a 111-111 tie with 43 seconds to go. At the other end, Golden State’s Draymond Green came up with two big blocks on a layup by Evans and a long jumper by the Pelicans’ Ryan Anderson. Thompson missed a 20-foot jumper with 2 seconds left and both teams went into overtime tied at 111.

In the extra period, Curry took over, hitting 3 of 4 from the floor, including 2 from long range, scoring 8 points total. The Pelicans, on the other hand, went cold from the floor, missing 15 of their last 19 shots as the Warriors opened up an 11-point lead at 125-114 before the Pelicans made a brief 8-1 run to close the gap at 126-122. Two free throws from Thompson with 15 seconds left completed the scoring. Curry led the Warriors with 34, followed by Thompson with 29. Iguodala finished with a season-high 20 points, while Draymond Green had a double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds, to go with 5 assists and 4 blocks, all the while logging 48 minutes of playing time. Golden State finished at 51% shooting, including 11 for 24 from 3-point range. They were also solid from the free throw line, converting 29 of 35. The Pelicans were led by Evans, who tied Curry with 34, and Holiday, not far behind with 30 points of his own. Anderson chipped in with 15 and Cunningham came off the bench to score 13 on 6 of 7 shooting. New Orleans also converted 19 Warrior turnovers into 23 points. New Orleans is now 11-12 on the season.

Golden State will look to extend its winning streak to 17 as they complete their 3-game road trip with a visit to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies on Tuesday night. Memphis is also one of the hottest teams in the league with a record of 19-4, good for first place in the Southwest Division. The Warriors are the ninth team in NBA history to begin a season at 21-2. The last team to accomplish that feat was Boston in 2008-09.

 

 

AP Photo/Stacy Bengs

By Robert Steward

MINNEAPOLIS–

The Golden State Warriors continued their torrid start tonight by defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves, 102-86. With the victory the Warriors won their franchise-record 13th in a row over an injury-depleted Minnesota squad to improve to a league-best 18-2. The T-Wolves, who came into the game at 4-15 were short-handed, playing without leading scorer Kevin Martin and leading rebounder Nikola Pekovic. Still, the Warriors came out flat and played sloppy, hitting only their first 4 of 15 shots and were only up, 9-6, with 5:43 left in the first quarter before Coach Steve Kerr called a timeout to bark at his team. Minnesota was also as cold as the weather outside in Minneapolis, hitting just 2 of their first 14 shots. After the timeout both teams shot better with Golden State having the edge after one quarter at 25-20.

The sloppy play, however, continued in the second quarter as both teams made numerous turnovers and Golden State led only by two, 36-34 with 5:29 left. Following a timeout, the Warriors ran off 7 straight points and finished the first half with a 48-39 lead, which matched their biggest lead of the half. The Warriors had 10 turnovers in the half, but Minnesota outdid them with 13 of their own. In addition, the Warriors were cold from 3-point range. Klay Thompson was the lone shooter who hit from long-distance, hitting 3 of 6 from downtown, while the rest of the Warriors were 0 for 9 in the first half. Minnesota was 0 for 5 shooting three’s. The Warriors as a team managed to only shoot 38% from the floor in the first half, while the T-Wolves shot only 36%. Golden State did have 11 steals in the half.

In the third quarter the Warriors “brought the energy,” as Kerr put it, and forced the tempo more. The Warriors, who are first in the NBA in fast-break points, settled down and committed fewer turnovers, while increasing their lead to 11. But the Timberwolves hung around and after Thaddeus Young hit the team’s first 3-pointer and followed it with a 14-foot jumper, they were only down 62-56, with 5:07 left in the quarter. The Warriors then ran off 7 in a row of their own, finishing the run with Stephen Curry’s first trey of the night to go up, 69-56, with 4:03 left in the 3rd, forcing Minnesota coach Flip Saunders to burn another timeout. The Warriors continued to add to their lead, eventually scoring 13 straight points to open up a 75-56 lead until Minnesota’s Andrew Wiggins stopped the bleeding with two free throws. Golden State led, 79-63, after 3.

The Warriors continued to find their focus in the 4th, extending their lead to its largest of the game by 22 points. While Coach Kerr wasn’t pleased with the lack of effort in the early going and felt the Warriors were too lazy in switching on defense, which allowed Minnesota to get some wide open lanes to the basket in the first half, he praised his team for turning up the defensive effort in the second half. He was also pleased with the effort turned in by backup Center Festus Ezeli, who came off the bench after starting Center Andrew Bogut left after only 3 minutes into the game with what the Warriors called “right knee irritation.” Ezeli grabbed 8 rebounds and scored 7 points in 21 minutes.

Golden State was led by both Curry and Thompson, who each scored 21. Shaun Livingston came off the bench and had a nice overall game, scoring 12 points to go with 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and 4 steals. Marreese Speights also chipped in with 12 off the bench, while Draymond Green also had 12 points, while leading the team with 10 rebounds. The Warriors ended up shooting 46% for the game, while holding Minnesota to 36%. No opponent of the Warriors has managed to shoot better than 50% from the floor this season. The T-Wolves were lead by the number one overall pick in this year’s NBA draft, Wiggins, who finished with 21 points. Shabazz Muhammad had 14 off the bench and Young scored 13.

The Warriors will look to extend their winning streak to 14 when they host the Houston Rockets on Wednesday night at Oracle Arena.