Oakland, CA — You could see it in the eyes of the collective Oracle Arena Crowd.
Every sports outlet, every hardcore passionate basketball fan, all the people at home had been waiting to see Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry in action after missing five weeks with an MCL injury. And he did not disappoint, scoring 28 points (5-10 3pt) in 27 minutes in a wildly competitive 116-111 Game 2 win over the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday night.
The most impressive part of all that is Curry (+26 plus/minus) did this as the sixth man, as Golden State head coach Steve Kerr announced shortly before the game that Curry would not start. From the looks of it though, his team didn’t need him to in order to win.
From the jump, both teams made it clear their intent was to take the upper hand. Pelicans forward Anthony Davis started off the game with a thundering dunk to score the first points of the game, while his teammates Jrue Holiday and Rajon Rondo helped to keep the pace a majority of the quarter. The duo combined for 15 of the team’s 29 first-quarter points as they kept the Warriors at bay. At the end of the first, the Pelicans led 29-27.
Of course, if you were watching at home, it was only a matter of time before Golden State turned the game around. David West started the rally with a layup, which led to a Klay Thompson three and a layup from Curry to give the Warriors a 34-33 lead. Most of the second quarter was used as a back and forth battle for dominance, as New Orleans snuffed out any run that Golden State tried to put together. Ultimately, Golden State would get the last word, as Thompson made a long bank shot to end the first half and give the Warriors a 58-55 lead.
Kevin Durant started off things for Golden State in the third quarter, sending the home crowd into a frenzy with a killer dunk. Teammate Nick Young made life worse for New Orleans, burying a three to put the Warriors up eight, their biggest lead of the game at that point.
However, E’Twaun Moore wasn’t going to let the Pelicans slip further, nailing two 3-pointers to start a 13-2 run. But Steph Curry wasn’t about to let the Warriors give up the game, scoring five straight points to spur his squad to stay focused. At the end of the third, Golden State led 88-86 thanks to a David West dunk in the closing seconds.
The fourth and final quarter was where things got fun. Draymond Green, who got into an altercation with the Pelicans’ Rajon Rondo earlier in the game, made two straight three-pointers to boost the Warriors back to an eight-point lead.
The closest that New Orleans would get the remainder of the game was at the 7:48 mark, when Rondo buried a 28-foot 3-pointer to bring the Pelicans within one, 99-98. The Warriors were up by as much as 13 in the final minutes before the Pelicans made a furious 10-2 run. That didn’t end up being enough, however.
For the Pelicans, all five starters scored in double-digits, led by Anthony Davis’ 25 points. Their bench, on the other hand, was basically nonexistent, as they only accounted for 13 of the team’s 116 points. For
the Warriors, Kevin Durant led the team with 29 points, and Draymond Green had another blockbuster performance, nearly putting up a triple-double (20 pts, 12 ast and 9 rbs).
Golden State will have an opportunity on Friday to put the third nail in the coffin for this series, as they travel to the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans with a 2-0 series lead. A win on Friday will set them up for a potential series-ending Game 4 on Sunday.
