Tag: NBA

Curry tweaks ankle, but Warriors hold on for 114-109 win over Hawks

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Photo credit: nba.com/warriors

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Warriors finished the three-game road trip in Atlanta as they beat the lowly Hawks, 114-109, but it was not easy. The Warriors won their fifth game in a row since the All-Star Game and thought that the Hawks would be a pushover. The Hawks had different thoughts, and they gave the Warriors all they could handle before going down.

Warriors star Stephen Curry tweaked his ankle in the first quarter. He played the second quarter and dazzled the crowd as he scored 15 points. He played about five minutes in the third quarter and Warriors’ head coach, Steve Kerr, took him out of the game for precautionary reasons. The Hawks won the third quarter and the game went down to the wire. The Hawks had the ball with six seconds left in the game and could have tied it if they could make a three-pointer. Fortunately for Golden State, Andre Iguodala stripped the ball from Kent Bazemore and sprinted down the court and finished with a dunk to seal the victory.

The Hawks were very competitive in the first quarter as they kept pace with the Dubs. The Warriors led by seven, 23-16, but went cold as the Hawks took the lead, 30-27, when they went on a 16-4 run. Iguodala made a three and Nick Young followed with a three of his own to regain the lead 33-30. The Hawks made a free throw and the period ended with the Dubs ahead 33-31.

The Warriors decided that they would establish superiority in the second quarter. Curry got hot as he scored 15. Young made two more threes, and Durant was solid with 12 points in the first half. The Warriors outscored the Hawks, 29-19, and finished the half with a 12-point lead of 62-50. The Dubs went to the locker room knowing that they own the third quarter and felt they were about to blow out Atlanta.

In the third quarter, Atlanta matched the Dubs shot-for-shot. Fans have to remember that the NBA is a very competitive league and even lowly teams can rise up and beat the elite teams if they catch them on an off-night. The Warriors led their guard down, and the Hawks won the quarter 34-28 to close the gap to just six points when Hawk guard Dennis Schroder nailed a three at the buzzer. The Dubs lead 90-84 at the end of three quarters.

The Warriors increased the lead to fourteen 101-87, and it looked as if they were going to cruise to victory. They were able to hold the Hawks off, but with 2:18 left in the game and leading by eleven 111-100, the Warriors went cold.  In addition, they started to make bad decisions and turned the ball over several times to give the Hawks life. They failed to score a point until there were just 18 seconds left in the game. The Hawks went on a 9-0 run to make it a two-point game. The Hawks fouled Durant. If Durant makes the two free throws, it would have sealed the win, but Durant made just one, and that gave the Hawks hope that they could tie the game. The Warriors played great defense as Iguodala bottled up Bazemore and made the steal and ran the court and finished with a bucket to ice it for the Warriors.

The final score was 114-109.

Game Notes and Stats: With the win, the Warriors improve to 49-14 while Atlanta drops to 19-44.

With his first three-point bucket in the first quarter, Stephen Curry reached the 200 mark for the sixth season in a row. He’s the first player in NBA history to accomplish that feat.

Even though he missed most of the second half, Curry tied with Kevin Durant for the scoring lead. Curry and Durant each tallied 28. Draymond Green scored just two points in the game, but he helped out with nine assists and seven rebounds. Klay Thompson chipped in with 15, and Nick Young added 16.

The Hawks were led by former Warrior Kent Bazemore along with Dennis Schroder. Bazemore tallied 29 and Schroder kicked in 27. John Collins had 16, and Taurean Prince recorded 15.

Curry felt that his ankle was fine, and he wanted to continue to play, but the Warriors’ coaching staff had other ideas.

“Basically their call,” Curry said. “Frustrating, but big picture, I understand…I don’t think it’s going to be anything that will keep me out.”

Kerr said Curry was “limping a little bit” in the third quarter, leading to the “precautionary” decision to take him out of the game for good.

Andre Iguodala had this to say about the steal that won the game: “Kent lost the ball, and it just fumbled to me.”

Kerr said the steal was “a hell of a play, an attacking, defensive play. Pretty impressive basically just to take the ball from Kent and go down and finish the game…That was amazing.”

Up Next: The Warriors return home to face the Brooklyn Nets at Oracle Arena Tuesday night March 6th at 7:30 pm PT.

Kings down Nets 116-111 in overtime

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Photo credit: @SacramentoKings

By: Jeremiah Salmonson

SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento Kings and Brooklyn Nets both came into Thursday’s contest coming off losses. The Kings fell to the Portland Trail Blazers, and the Nets fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The matchup was all-set with two teams having sub-par seasons with nothing really to play for except pride. De’Aaron Fox would lead to Kings onto the court with a 7:11 tip-off.

In the first quarter, the Kings would come out of the gate sluggish, but managed to pick it up halfway through the quarter. The Kings would have a 12-14 lead with six minutes to play in the quarter.

Allen Crabbe and the Nets would storm back to snatch a 31-22 lead. Willie Cauley-Stein would lead the way, scoring 12 points for the Kings. The Kings were a little sloppy with the ball in the first, leading to multiple dunks in transition.

The Kings needed to make up some ground in the second quarter. They did not help their cause much by continuing their sloppy ball handling. The Kings would fall to a 27-36 deficit with 9:26 to go in the first half. The game did not stay in the Nets favor for long though. The Kings stormed back to take a 43-49 with two minutes left in the quarter. Skal Labissiere would be charged with two shooting fouls and all four free throws were made. DeMarrre Carrol would cap the first half with a buzzer-beating two-point shot. They headed into the second with a score of 53-51 in favor of the Kings.

The second half started in the Kings favor with Skal Labissiere and Justin Jackson’s dunks, respectively. Yet, the Nets would come right back with points of their own to make it 62-61 Kings with 7:30 left to play in the third period. With the Kings looking to build on the one-point lead, just the opposite happened. The Kings once again were sloppy with the ball, and that led to 71-66 lead with four minutes left to play. The quarter would end with the Kings trailing 79-73.

Going into the fourth quarter, the Kings had some ground to make up. The Kings were able to tie it up at 79 apiece with a Garrett Temple dunk off a turnover. The game would go back-and-forth with the Kings up 94-89 with 3:40 to play. D’Angelo Russell would hit a long range jumper to make it 95-94 Nets with 2:20 left to go in the game. Nothing was falling for the Kings during the Nets’ run. Buddy Hield would put the Kings up 98-95 before DeMarree Carroll hit a shot from downtown to tie it up. Buddy Hield would be charged with a foul with 6.1 seconds left on the clock. The Nets made both free throws and the game was 100-98. Fox would tie it at the buzzer with a floater and the game headed to overtime.

In overtime with the help of Buddy’s buckets and Bogdan Bodanovic, the Kings would have a 110-109 lead with 1:42 left to go in overtime. Buddy Hield was fouled in transition with 13.4 seconds left to go and made both his shots to put the Kings back on top 114-111.

The final would be 116-111 with Bogdan Bogdanovic making two free throws.

Game Notes: The Kings improve to 19-43 while the Nets fall to 20-43.

Up Next: The Kings host the Utah Jazz this Saturday at 7:00 pm PT. 

Curry and Durant lead Warriors to a 109-101 win over Wizards

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Photo credit: nba.com/warriors

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Golden State Warriors played the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night in the Nation’s Capitol. The Wizards, playing without their star John Wall, had won 10 of the last 13 games in his absence. The Wizards’ Bradley Beal increased his scoring and the Wizards, taking a page out of the Warriors’ playbook, started moving the ball and finding the open man to make up for Wall’s loss. The Wizards beat the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday night in Milwaukee, and the Warriors felt that the Wizards might tire late in the game. The Wizards did not fold as they stayed with the Warriors for most of the game, but the Warriors were too tough, and the Dubs won 109-101.

The Warriors started strong as they raced out to a 15-point lead, 36-21, after 12 minutes of action. Kevin Durant tallied 16 and Steph Curry added 10. The Wizards fell behind 42-26 before they went on a 10-0 run to close the gap to 42-36. The Wizards’ defense shut down the Warrior offense. The Warriors scored just six points in more than six minutes of play in the second quarter. The Wizards took the lead, 53-52, but buckets by Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala put the Warriors back in front. The Wizards made a 3-point shot to tie the game at 56, but Curry sank two free throws to put the Warriors at the end of the first half, 58-86. Durant led the Warrior attack with 18, and Otto Porter also tallied 18 for the Wizards.

The Warriors had another terrific third quarter. As they have done so many times this year, they did their job on offense, and the defense shut down the Wizards. The Warriors started the quarter with a 16-4 run. They outscored Washington 27-14 and led 85-70 heading into the fourth quarter. The Wizards won the fourth quarter as they outscored the W’s by 7. It was too little, too late as Curry refused to wilt and won 109-101.

Game Notes and Stats: The Warriors’ defense shut down Wizards guard, Bradley Beal. Beal came into the game averaging 26.5 points per game in the games since John Wall was injured. The Warriors’ Klay Thompson did a fantastic job as Beal scored just eight points in the game. The Wizards were led by Otto Porter’s 29 points and 10 rebounds. Markieff Morris had 16, Tomas Satoransky 11, and Kelly Oubre recorded 17. The Warriors held the Wizards to 40% from the floor. However, the Wizards took 19 more shots than the Warriors. The Wizards outrebounded the Warriors, 50-39, and they recorded 25 assists.

The Warriors shot 52.1% from the floor. They made 10 3-point shots, Durant led the Warriors with 32. Curry had 25 including four 3-pointers. Thompson had 13. Draymond Green had a double-double with 11 points and 11 assists. Andre Iguodala pitched in with 14. The Warriors had 10 steals and eight blocked shots. Iguodala blocked three and JaVale McGee had two. The Warriors are now 48-14 while the Wizards drops to 36-26.

After the game, Bradley Beal commented on the Warriors’ defense:

“They took a lot of my shots away. They doubled. They switched,” Beal said. “Their main objective was to take the ball out of my hands.”

A lot of the credit went to Thompson.

“Klay did a really good job,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “We assign Klay with the most difficult job night after night.”

Up Next: The Warriors finish the three-game road trip in Atlanta on Friday night. It will be the first game of the season between the two teams. Game time is at 4:30 pm PT.

Kings lose to Trail Blazers 116-99 and suffer a blowout loss in season series finale

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Photo credit: @SacramentoKings

By: Ana Kieu

The Sacramento Kings suffered yet another loss, a 116-99 blowout, to the Portland Trail Blazers at the Moda Center on Tuesday night.

The Trail Blazers were glad to be back home, while the Kings just wanted to avoid their fifth straight loss. Kings’ Willie Cauley-Stein dominated in the first quarter with a lot of shots, including 3-pointers.

Kings veteran Vince Carter didn’t just have dunks up his sleeve, but also impressive two-point field goals, like the one embedded below.

The Kings trailed the Blazers 66-53 at the half. Sacramento had six steals with Carter, De’Aaron Fox and Bogdan Bodanovic logging two steals apiece.

Kings’ star Zach “Z-Bo” Randolph made a notable shot.

After that, the Kings had some fun on their Twitter, tweeting:
Willie: I’ll take this made shot @trailblazers: How about a foul, too.
Willie: Two points is fine
Blazers: Here’s one more
*God’s Plan starts playing*

The Kings got some help in the final seconds of the third quarter as Frank Mason III made a difficult bucket to cut their deficit to a single-digit amount of eight (88-80).

The Kings’ offense and defense proceeded to make the necessary shots and blocks, respectively. But they were unable to catch up to the Blazers in their season series finale and lost in a 116-99 blowout in Portland.

Notes
Kings’ starting lineup:
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Up Next
The Kings return to Sacramento to host the Nets on Wednesday night at 7:30 pm PT.

Golden State Warriors Podcast with David Zizmor: Warriors cruise in win past Knickerbockers; get set for Wizards Wednesday night

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Photo credit: nba.com/warriors

On the Warriors podcast with David:

The Warriors continue their roll with a 125-111 win on Monday night in New York at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks. For the Warriors, Klay Thompson had 26 points followed by Stephen Curry’s 21 points. You can see the Warriors are starting to turn thing around as the Oklahoma City game was like the big test. You saw them kick it into gear against the Clippers against the Thunder. They really went into overdrive.

They were closer to cruise control in the Knicks game. New York in the first half made the Warriors sweat a little bit and in the third quarter is when the Warriors normally excel ahead of themselves in the last three or four years they just put everything together. The shots just started to come easy, the defense played really well by the time the third quarter was over, the game was kind of out of reach for the Knicks.

Hear it all David does the Warriors podcast each Tuesday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

 

Warriors use a strong third quarter to overwhelm Knicks as they cruise to 125-111 win

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Photo credit: nba.com/warriors

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Golden State Warriors had a tussle on their hands for the first 24 minutes of the game against the New York Knicks Monday night at Madison Square Garden in the Big Apple.

The Knicks showed the Warriors a lot of gumption as they went toe-to-toe in the first half and led by one-point 64-63. The game resembled the one the Warriors played last week against the L.A. Clippers. The Warrior offense was clicking, but the Knicks kept pace as the vaunted Warrior defense could not shut down the Knicks’ attack.

The Warriors took control of the game in the third quarter when they outscored the Knicks by 21 and then cruised to a 125-111 victory.

The Knicks’ Emmanuel Emudiay, who was obtained in a trade with the Nuggets, scored 14 of his 20 points in the first quarter. The Warriors led 21-16, but the Knicks went on a 7-0 run to take the lead 23-21. The teams seemed to score at will, and the Knicks finished the first quarter leading 39-37.

The Warriors played better defense in the second period, but so did the Knicks. The Warriors won the period 26-25 and finished the first half trailing by one.

The Warriors, as they have done so many times this season, got their offense in sync and their defense stopped the Knicks cold. Steph Curry led the attack as he scored 14 points in the period to lead the onslaught. They finished the quarter with a 21-point lead, and the Knicks could not catch them. The Warriors won by a score of 125-111.

Game Notes and Stats: Jordan Bell played 13 minutes in his first action since injuring his ankle in January.

With the win, the Warriors improved to 47-14; while the Knicks drop to 24-38.

After the game, Curry was asked why the Warriors excel in the third quarter. Curry responded: “I still don’t have an answer as to why the third quarter is what it is, like anything specific, beyond just the fact that we can wear teams down over the course of 48 minutes.”

“And it might take 24, 26 minutes to really create that separation and gain that momentum, and we come out of the halftime with some juice, some energy, and it’s winning time. So that’s my best explanation for it, and hopefully, it continues.”

Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 26 points. Klay made four 3-point shots in six attempts. All the Warrior starters were in double figures. Kevin Durant had 22, Steph 21 including four 3s, Draymond Green and JaVale McGee each had 10. David West had 11, and Andre Iguodala added nine.

The Knicks were led by Emudiay with 20. Enes Kanter had 10 and Tim Hardaway, Jr pitched in with 14.

The Knicks, however, had four players coming off the bench to score in double figures: Trey Burke scored 18, Frank Ntikilini 13, Kyle O’Quinn 14, and Lance Thomas 11.

Up Next: The Warriors play the Washington Wizards Wednesday night in the Nation’s Capitol. Game time will be at 5 pm PT.

 

Career night for Caldwell-Pope lifts Lakers past Kings, 113-108

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By: Jordan Chapin

wcs-vs-lakers.jpg

SACRAMENTO- Saturday night at Golden 1 Center the Lakers faithful made there presence known in a very loud, very exciting game that the Lakers came out on top of 113-108. The always anticipated, Lonzo Ball vs De’Aaron Fox match-up was put on hold due to Ball sitting out due to injury, but that did not stop the Lakers guards from putting on a show. The combination of Thomas, Hart, and Caldwell-Pope combined for 61 points, about half of which came from Caldwell-Pope.

After struggling two nights ago, Bogdan Bogdanovic came out of the gates firing on all cylinders. He led all Kings scorers in the first quarter with seven points, and then got a bit of a lift from his “big man” – Willie-Cauley Stein who went into the locker-room at halftime already having a double-double and helped the Kings to an eight point lead after the first 24 minutes.

Sacramento did get a bit of help from the bench, led by Buddy Hield with 21 points, but the second half belonged to Lakers Caldwell-Pope who scored 17 points in the third quarter and didn’t seem to miss any shot. The Lakers led the rest of the way until Bogdan Bogdanovic finished a 4-point play that knocked the Lakers lead to just one with 12 seconds to play. Sacramento had a chance to tie the game after a pair of Isiah Thomas free-throws, but they could not capitalize as Bogdanovic missed a driving lay-up to seal the game for the Lakers.

The Kings will finish there home-stand Monday night as they face a Minnesota Timberwolves team who just lost Jimmy Butler to a knee injury and don’t know when or if he will return this season. Once again, without their first-round draft pick, Lonzo Ball, the Lakers were able to pull off their 25th win of the season and continue to build their young talent for future

Player of the Game: Willie Cauley-Stein

Willie set the tone early grabbing rebounds and scoring around the rim. He finished his first half with a double-double, 10 points and 11 rebounds. It did not stop there for Cauley-Stien. He continued his aggression in the second half, totaling 37 minutes and  finishing with 18 points and 15 rebounds to go along with 2 blocks.

Key Stats

  • As a team, the Kings shot 52% from 3-point land and a respectable 45% from the field.
  • Frank Mason and De’Aaron Fox led the team with six assists a piece
  • “Rising Stars” Bogdan Bogdanovic and Buddy Hield led the Kings with 21 points each
  • Willie Cauley-Stien had a season high 15 rebounds
  • Vince Carter “Slamage”- ONE

Los Angeles Lakers

Player of the Game: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

KCP has had a bigger role since Lonzo Ball has been hurt, but something that we all know is that he will shoot his shots. He finished his night 12-for-20 from the field and racking up a season high 34 points to go along with 7 rebounds and 2 assists. Caldwell-Pope was the reason the Lakers were able to stay in the game early, and hold the lead late.

Key Stats

  • Had seven players in double digits including all starters
  • Julius Randle finished with another Double-double, after having a Triple-double last night
  • Season high in 3-pointers made with 17
  • Caldwell-Pope’s eight 3-pointers made, is the highest for his career

Warriors play defense from start to finish as they knock off Thunder in 112-80 blowout win

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Photo credit: @warriors

By Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND — The Golden Warriors decided to play defense for the entire 48 minutes of Saturday night’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder as they won 112-80 at Oracle Area. The Thunder had embarrassed the Warriors in the two previous meetings this season. Thunders’ stars Russell Westbrook and Paul George sent the Warriors down to a 17-point defeat in Oklahoma City on November 22, and they routed the Dubs 125-105 at Oracle Arena on February 6. The Warriors have not lost the season series to the Thunder since the 2012-13 season, and they played Warrior basketball Saturday night.

The Warriors won the first quarter 24-19 and the second quarter 28-26 to finish with a seven-point advantage 52-45 at the end of the first half. The Thunder closed the gap to one, but the Warriors went on a 37-11 run that included 30 points in the last 8:48 of the third quarter. They continued to shut the Thunder offense down as they outscored OKC 28-14 in the fourth quarter to 112-80.

Game Notes and Stats: After the game, Kevin Durant commented about the team’s performance: “We’re champions. We’re 46-14, and we’ve got one of the best road records in the league,” Durant said. “We’ve been doing this the last two years. We’ve got to be us.”

Draymond Green was hit with his 15th technical foul of the season. If he gets one more technical, he will be suspended for one game. Warrior coach Steve Kerr said he is not concerned at all about the situation. Green commented: “I’m an emotional guy. I play with high emotion, I love this game of basketball. I play it with passion. I’ll continue to play with passion.”

The numbers show how good the defense was. Russell Westbrook, the defending NBA MVP, was held to just 15 points. Westbrook did have a double-double, but the Warriors shut down him down. PAu George, who tallied 38 in the last game at Oracle on February 6, was held to just five points. Carmelo Anthony had 14, and Raymond Felton added 11. The Warriors held the Thunder to  33% from the floor, and the Thunder made just nine 3-pointers in 34 attempts. The Warriors outrebounded them 54-43, and the Dubs had eight steals and six blocked shots.

The Warriors were led on offense by Kevin Durant. Durant knocked down 28. Steph Curry had 21, Klay Thompson 11, Draymond Green 10, and Nick Young chipped in with 16.  The Warriors are now 46-14 for the year.

Kevin Durant received an honor Saturday night.

Durant received the January NBA Cares Community Assist Award for his giving off the court to help kids, families and other charitable causes for education and communities. He donated $3 million last month to the University of Texas where he played and matched Colin Kaepernick’s $10,000 in the quarterback’s “10 for 10” campaign, Durant’s contributions helping a local organization doing community-based justice work.

“I’ve got to continue to leave my mark off the basketball court as well,” Durant said. “Look forward to doing that.”

Up Next: The Warriors head East for a three-game road trip. They play the New York Knicks Monday night in New York. They meet the Washington Wizards on Wednesday and finish the trip in Atlanta against the Hawks.

Curry scores 44 to lead Warriors in 134-127 victory, despite Clippers’ fourth-quarter rally

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Photo credit: nba.com/warriors

By Jerry Feitelberg

The Golden State Warriors returned to action Thursday night against the vastly improved Los Angeles Clippers at Oracle Arena. The Clippers beat the Warriors at Oracle Arena the last time they played. Clippers’ Lou Williams knocked down 50 points that night, and the Warriors were determined to not let that happen again. The Warriors, behind Steph Curry’s 44 point performance, Thursday night sent the Clippers down to defeat, 134-127, but it was not easy.

The Clippers started poorly this year, but after the trade that sent Blake Griffin to Detroit, they have turned their season around. They still have Austin Rivers, DeAndre Jordan from last year, but they added Danilo Gallinari, Milos Teodosic, Tobias Harris, and Lou Williams. The Warriors owned the Clippers when Chris Paul and Blake Griffin were their starters. They are gone, and the Clippers are on the rebound.

The Warriors made one change to the starting lineup Thursday night as Steve Kerr decided to start JaVale McGee at center in place of Zaza Pachulia. The move was made to jump start the offense in the first quarter, and the strategy worked as the Warriors raced out to a 34-23 lead at the end of the first 12 minutes of play. It was the first time since November 19th that the Warriors finished the quarter with an 11-point advantage. Curry electrified the crowd as he made a three pointer from half-court as the buzzer sounded to end the period.

The Warriors continued to play well in the second period. At one point, they led 57-40 when Nick Young connected on a three. The Clippers, however, came back on a 9-0 run to close the gap to eight. Curry connected on a three late in the first half to up the lead to 15 70-55, but Danilo Gallinari matched Steph with a three of his own as the buzzer sounded. The Warriors finished the half leading 70-58. Kevin Durant had 12, Curry 15, Thompson 17, and Draymond Green seven. Austin Rivers and Gallinari led the Clippers with 10 apiece. Teodosic had nine, and Lou Williams was held to five.

The Warriors, who have owned the third quarter this year, got off to a good start as they increased the led by 16 after Curry knocked down a three-point shot. Kevin Durant followed with a three of his own, and it looked as if the Warriors were on cruise control. The Clippers cut the deficit to 12 at the end of the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Clippers went on a 9-0 run to make it a two-point game. They trailed 104-102. The Warriors behind three big three-point baskets by Curry and one by Durant were able to meet the challenge. They met every Clipper challenge as they showed they still know how to play defense and what they have to do to win a close contest.

Game Notes and Stats: With the win, the Warriors improve to 45-14 and had just 23 games left on the regular season schedule.

The Clippers are now 30-27 but are in the race for the playoffs. The loss time was just the sixth in the last 19 games played and their coach, Doc Rivers, has made them very competitive.

Curry had a double-double with 44 points and 10 assists and he made 8 threes in 11 attempts. Durant knocked down 24, Thompson 19, Green 14. McGee tallied six points and had four boards. Pachulia also scored six. David West had 10.

The Warriors shot 62.7% from the floor but they allowed the Clippers to take 12 more shots in the game.

The Clippers shot 50% from the floor.

The Warriors recorded 31 assists and on defense, they had eight steals and eight blocked shots. The Warriors committed 15 turnovers. At one point in the first quarter, Steve Kerr called a timeout as the Warriors turned the ball over three straight times.

The Clippers had seven players in double figures. Austin Rivers 14, Gallinari 15, Jordan 16. Harris 22, Teodosic, 14. Montrezl Harrell pitched in with 15 and Lou Williams finished with 21. Williams made several big three-point shots when the Clippers rallied in the fourth quarter.

The Warriors’ next opponent will be the Oklahoma Thunder Saturday night at Oracle Arena.

The Thunder, behind Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Steve Adams, pounded the Warriors the last time they met at Oracle. In fact, the Thunder has won two of the three games played so far this season. The Warriors have their work cut out for them as they have to figure out a way to stop the Thunder attack. Saturday’s game should be a barn burner.

Team LeBron defeats Team Stephen with late 148-145 victory

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~ Photo credit: @YahooSportsNBA

~ By Pearl Allison Lo

~ It came to the final shot at Staples Center as Team LeBron came back for a 148-145 victory in the premier of non-conference teams in the NBA All-Star Game Sunday.

Stephen Curry and then DeMar DeRozan had the ball looking for a three to tie, but due to tough defense, were unable to put up a shot before the buzzer.

The underdog Team Stephen led for the majority of the game. For the most part, when Team LeBron did get the lead, it was short-lived.

James tied the game at 144 apiece with 1:30 left and that score held until 40.2 seconds left. DeRozan put Team Stephen up by one when he made one of two free throws.

After a Team LeBron timeout, James gave his team the lead for good with 34.5 seconds left. Russell Westbrook put the final points up when he took a long pass by James to the basket. Westbook commented, “We got stops when we needed to.”

Captain LeBron James won his third All-Star Game MVP title, with 29 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. He won $350K for his charity After School All Stars and Team Stephen earned $150K for Brotherhood Crusade.

DeRozan and Damian Lillard led Team Steph with 21 points apiece. Stephen Curry finished with 11 points.

Jimmy Butler was the only All-Star not to play.

After the second, Team LeBron shot above 50% from the field and Team Steph above 40%.

The first quarter saw a bit of a rough start or nervous energy, with five bad passes from the teams in just over a minute.  Team Steph had two 7-0 runs, the latter run part of an 11-2 run to close the first.

Karl-Anthony Towns was the only double-digit scorer, with 11 points.

Team Steph’s heat continued in the second until Team LeBron made their way back from beyond the arc with three straight three’s, two from the Captain and one from Kemba Walker. Kevin Durant pulled Team LeBron to within one 51-52 with 7:15 left. James followed with a reverse dunk over a minute later to give his team their first lead since 7:48 left in the first. It was short-lived though, as Joel Embiid reasserted Team Stephen’s lead.

Team Steph put together an 11-0 run with four minutes left. This included Curry’s first field goal and one of Klay Thompson’s threes. Team LeBron then went on a 7-0 run and chipped at Team Steph’s lead. Team Steph was stopped from crossing half court twice in the waning seconds as the teams headed to the lockers with a two-point difference, 76-78.

Giannis Antetokounmpo had a block with 9:53 left that was called for goaltending. Thompson scored 12 points in the second, all off three’s, with three consecutive when he had the ball.

Durant started off the third with a three that gave Team Lebron a short-lived 79-78 lead. Team Stephen replied with a 9-0 run.

Durant took to the free throw line for Team LeBron’s first free throws with 8:17 left.  

Team LeBron finally saw their lead last for more than one possession when Kemba Walker made it 109-105. Then Team Steph responded with a 7-0 run to close out the third, two threes by Curry.

Team Steph continued with a 6-2 run to start the fourth. They went on a 9-0 run with 8:28 left. Kyle Lowry had two points and two assists, DeRozan two free throws and Lillard five points.

Team LeBron kept in it with an 8-0 run with 5:06 left. James had a layup, free throw and Westbrook two free throws.

The game also had some instant replay action after James’ 144-144 score when the ball went out of bounds and the referee was checking to see if the ball went off Embiid or Durant.  

Game notes: Team Steph outrebounded Team LeBron 68-49. Thompson finished with 15 points and Golden State Warriors teammates Draymond Green had three points off free throws and a game-high tying two blocks, Durant with 19 points and a game-high tying three steals. Embiid also had two blocks. Towns matched James with a game-high 10 rebounds. Lowry and Victor Oladipo also had three steals. Lillard finished +18. Bradley Beal, Paul George and James led with four threes apiece.