Warriors Victorious in Barn Burner With Indiana Pacers

Four road games, and four matchups that came down to the final quarter. Though the Warriors suffered two heartbreaking losses to tip off this road trip, the squad successfully limited the Indiana Pacers in the final minutes of Wednesday’s contest to win 111-107.

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It was a tightly contested game from the opening tip. It was not until the 2:21 mark of the fourth quarter when Kelly Oubre Jr. hit a step-back jumper from the free throw line, off of a clever bounce pass from Stephen Curry, that the Dubs got their largest lead of the night at 105-98.

On the ensuing possession, Indiana’s Damantas Sabonis received a pass in the post while posting up the smaller Eric Paschall. Though he started to back down Paschall to the bucket, Draymond Green came in from his blindside for the double-team. Their combined pressure forced Sabonis to travel and turn the ball over to the Dubs.

But as the story had been through the game, solid defense was being played by both teams. The Pacers played the Dubs well on the next possession and forced an unfruitful trip down court. They were able to capitalize on that and find Doug McDermott for an open splash to trim the Dubs’ lead to four points.

Considering the Dubs had their worst shooting night on 3-pointers at 5-for-26 (19.2 percent), a win was going to have to be earned in some other fashion. And sure enough, the Dubs found the answer by scoring through other means the rest of the way.

Curry had the ball at the top of the arc off an inbound play from the side on their next trip down. With two Pacers coming to double-team him, Curry threaded a bounce pass between his defenders in front of Paschall. The pass led Paschall to the hoop where he glided by one last defender and went up for a one-handed slam to put the team up 107-101.

Former Rookie of the Year Malcom Brogdon would then drop Indiana’s next four points to bring the Pacers to within two points of the Dubs.

But with just 12.1 seconds left in a 107-105 game and the Warriors with possession after Brogdon’s bucket, the Warriors had forced Indiana into an end of game free throw situation. Green found Curry with the inbound pass, and the Pacers had no choice but to foul him. Curry made his two free throw shots.

Indiana called time out to advance the ball, but the Warriors stole Indiana’s inbound pass which forced them to foul Green. He also converted his two shots to give the Warriors the breathing room needed over the final 7.0 seconds.

Despite a 1-for-11 night from three-point distance, Curry still finished with 24 points while five other Dubs scored in double figures: Oubre Jr. (17), Andrew Wiggins (15), Paschall (13), Green (12) and James Wiseman (11).

With the win on Tuesday over the New York Knicks and tonight over the Indiana Pacers, the Warriors successfully split their road games (2-2) and notched their eighth set of back-to-back victories.

Up Next:The squad will return home to Chase Center as they continue to seek their first three-game winning streak in a matchup Friday against the Charlotte Hornets (7 p.m., NBCSBA, ESPN).

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