What appeared to be an incredible night for New Orleans most of the evening turned into the ultimate heartbreaking loss, as Golden State rallied from a 20-point deficit in the final quarter, capped by an improbable Stephen Curry three-pointer to send it to overtime with 2 seconds left. The Warriors then seemed to take control in OT with a six-point lead, but the Pelicans created more drama by pulling within a point. However, the hosts were unable to retake the lead, as Golden State picked up a memorable victory and took a 3-0 series advantage on the eighth-seeded Pelicans.
IT WAS OVER WHEN…
Stephen Curry sank two free throws with 3.2 seconds remaining in overtime, stretching the Warriors’ lead to two possessions. The Pelicans only had time to fire up a three-pointer at the buzzer, but even if that had fallen, it was too late to erase the four-point deficit. On the previous possession, the Pelicans were down 121-119 and had a chance to tie, but Anthony Davis’ drive against Andrew Bogut resulted in a missed bank shot.
PELICANS PLAYER OF THE GAME
Ryan Anderson was a combined 2-for-11 shooting in the first two games at Golden State, but delivered in his return home. Anderson made shots from all over the floor Thursday, including a fourth-quarter barrage that led to Anderson and the Warriors sideline exchanging words, a rarity for player who never seems to talk much to the opposition. The reserve finished with 26 points on sparkling 10-for-14 shooting from the field.
PELICANS UNSUNG CONTRIBUTOR
There’s something about second quarters and Norris Cole. After going off in the second period vs. San Antonio last week, a key to the win over the Spurs, Cole was at it again Thursday, this time racking up 11 points in the stanza. Cole totaled 16 points in 26 minutes, helping key a 63-52 halftime edge.
QUOTES TO NOTE
“You can’t sugarcoat it. We’re all feeling like dirt right now, so obviously you want to build them up, but there is nothing that you can build up in a situation like that. It can be a growth moment for us. It’s just tough. To have the game, and to lose it that way, there is no way to fix it right away. We’ve got to deal with it and own it.” – Monty Williams on the loss
“We didn’t execute the game plan. We were supposed to foul. We’ve had that happen to us a couple times and we shouldn’t have even had that shot (by Stephen Curry) take place. We just didn’t execute and that’s on all of us, but we were supposed to foul.” – Monty Williams on the sequence in which Golden State forced overtime with a three-pointer
“I wanted to foul, tried to foul, but there was no way. Steph was in the shooting motion. You couldn’t get to him unless you wanted to (give up) three (foul) shots. We could’ve fouled (Mo Speights) there. I’ve got to watch (the tape to see more clearly what happened).” – Quincy Pondexter on the defensive sequence at the end of regulation
“That one play didn’t decide the game. There were plays throughout the game.” – Anthony Davis on Curry’s OT-forcing trey
“This is a tough one to swallow. Up the whole game. They made tough shots and we came out with a loss. We’ve got to do better.” – Anthony Davis, after being asked if this was the toughest loss of his basketball career
“We’ll watch the film and see more of what we did wrong, but you’ve got to come up with a win when you’re up that much. Or you can be down 3-0, like we are. We didn’t capitalize. We put ourselves in this position.” – Norris Cole on the loss
BY THE NUMBERS
39-19: Golden State scoring advantage in the fourth quarter, allowing it to erase an 89-69 deficit.
22: Warriors offensive rebounds, a big key to the late comeback.
15: Pelicans turnovers. At one point New Orleans had only nine turnovers, but seven of them were from offensive fouls (including charges and moving picks).