The Warriors bent but didn’t break and picked up a 124-121 victory in Milwaukee on Saturday night.
GAME LEADERS
Perhaps the man that deserves the most credit for the Dubs hanging on to the victory is Draymond Green. After a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter was trimmed to two, all of the momentum was on the Bucks’ side. They had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead with 10 seconds left, leaving the Dubs in position in which they needed a stop. Enter Green, a two-time NBA All-Defensive Team selection who has made no secret of his ambition of becoming the Defensive Player of the Year.
Milwaukee inbounded the ball from the sideline and attempted to get the ball to Giannis Antetokounmpo in the post. But Green got in the way, literally. He leaped in front of Antetokounmpo and made a game-saving deflection.
Klay Thompson corralled the ball, was fouled and made two free throws on the other end of the floor to secure the win, their second victory in as many nights and their seventh straight win overall.
Although the Dubs almost let their double digit lead slip away completely, they got to that point initially behind some hot shooting from Kevin Durant and Thompson. Durant carried the Warriors early and scored 25 of his game-high 33 points in the first half. He shot 8-for-10 from the field and made all five of his 3-point attempts before the break.
It was Durant’s fifth game of 30-plus points this season, and second in the last three games. His hot hand resulted in 16 points in the second quarter, part of a 41-point period for the Dubs that matched their highest output in any quarter this season.
After trailing by as many as nine points in the first quarter, the Dubs took a three-point lead into the break, and Klay Thompson made sure the Warriors would stay in front.
After getting just four points in the first half, Thompson came out firing in the third quarter. He knocked down four treys in the quarter, the first three of which all occurred from nearly the same spot on the floor. Thompson finished the game with 29 points and made five of 10 from downtown.
Stephen Curry struggled with his shot but still finished with 20 points, and the Dubs reached the 30-assist mark for the ninth time this season – no other team has more than three such games.
Now 11-2 on the season and 3-0 on this current four-game road trip, the Dubs will head to Indiana for a game on Monday before returning home to host the Lakers ( Find Tickets) on Wednesday night at Oracle Arena.