After a balanced first half, the Golden State Warriors (18-6) shift up two or three gears in the third heat. Especially the Miami Heat (11-12) has little to contend with the strong Stephen Curry. The Dubs finally win 123:95 (BOXSCORE) – despite the Heatles franchise record.
The trip to the American Airlines Arena didn’t start very promising for the Warriors. The reigning champion started the game extremely coldly, but in the first quarter it was only a strong Stephen Curry who kept his team in the match with 16 points in this section alone.
Thanks to the point guards of the Dubs, Heat’s 8-point lead in the meantime was back on track relatively quickly, and up to the halfway point (62:60 for GSW) a very balanced duel developed at a high level with many leadership changes.
Curry obviously had enough of this after the break tea. In the familiar Warrior style – the dubs regularly switch up one or two gears in the third round this season – guests overrun Miami by every trick in the book. Especially Curry (30 points in total, 11/16 FG, 5/9 threesomes) led the Warriors with a 12:2 race in the first two minutes of the quarter on the winning track.
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After a weak first half, Kevin Durant scored a total of 24 points and 7 assists in the first half of the match, and so Golden State moved ahead with a very strong third leg (37:17). The fourth quarter thus became a long garbage time, but it was no longer exciting.
Klay Thompson still scored 19 points, while Goran Dragic advanced to his team’s top scorer (20 points, 7/10 FG). The Dragon was supported by Tyler Johnson (13) and Kelly Olynyk from the bank. The Canadian scored 14 points, 7 rebounds and 5 assists, but he scored most of his points in the garbage time. Apart from that, the Heatles remained relatively pale – especially in the second half, when they only made it out of the field by 30 percent.
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Stephen Curry. No doubt about it, the 29-year-old was the man of the game. If he kept his team in striking distance at the beginning of the game with his scoring, he started the death blow after the break. Miami had nothing against the Splash Brother’s hot hand.
Dion Waiters. Speaking of hot hands: Waiters and the Warriors did not show any of this at all. While his colleagues met each other quite well, the shooting guard experienced a second-hand evening. Of his 10 throws out of the field, only 1 found its way through the Reuse (0/5 threesome). The view into the boxscore (4 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound) was correspondingly thin.
The fact that the Heat had to do without Hassan Whiteside (knee problems) was more than noticeable against the reigning champion. The Warriors were always looking for the way to the ring, on the one hand with numerous Pick & Rolls and on the other hand with strong cuts away from the ball. As a result, the Dubs got some open throws close to the ring and dominated the zone (58:32 points in the paint). When Golden State gained additional ground in the second half, Miami had no chance.