The fantastic Golden State Warriors broadcasting team of Bob Fitzgerald and Jim Barnett could smell it in mid-third quarter.
After taking a double-digit lead in the first half against the Orlando Magic in their first home game in 11 days, Stephen Curry and the Warriors started to look lackadaisical in their approach half way into the second half with a lead as high as 12 points. Noticing this, the ever-observant Barnett – a former NBA player and long-time color commentator of the Warriors – stated the following: “They’re still a little casual. The game is not over… we know the NBA game. It can change quickly… can’t you feel it?”
Boy did they feel it.
As Barnett expressed his feelings, the Magic cut the lead to half in the span of a minute, and before you knew it, Orlando had a nine-point lead with four minutes left to go in the contest. Like Barnett and Fitzgerald had discussed and predicted, the Warriors found themselves in a big hole and were seemingly about to start December on a sour note.
The Warriors had just won five straight games on the road – including a blowout win against the Magic – prior to this game to bring their win streak to a league-best nine. While it would have been understandable if they dropped this one on a night when they simply couldn’t hit from beyond the arc (eight-of-27) and Victor Oladipo looking unstoppable (27 points on 10-of-14 shooting), Golden State kept plugging along.
The biggest issue in this game down the stretch was the Magic using Channing Frye at center to stretch Andrew Bogut, who had five blocks, out of the paint area. The plan worked to perfection, as Bogut stood out to guard Frye at the 3-point line and Orlando’s guards and wing players started to attack the basket with moderate success. Unfortunately, that plan crumbled badly when Frye fouled out of the game with about three minutes left in the contest.
From there, Klay Thompson and Curry hit huge 3-point baskets to erase the Magic’s lead while Bogut put an end to all the easy drives at the rim on the defensive end. Still, they were down by two points with less than 10 seconds remaining in the game.
Then, this happened:
Here is a more detailed version of what happened (h/t Ben Golliver of SI):
Ricky Rubio, who has been out with an ankle injury for the Minnesota Timberwolves, saw Curry’s shot and was pretty much left speechless, as seen below:
Curry… — Ricky Rubio (@rickyrubio9) December 3, 2014
It was an incredible shot by Curry that proved to be the game-winner for the Warriors, who now have a 10-game winning streak heading into their TNT home game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday.
This is starting to become a very, very special year for the Warriors. While most of their wins have come in huge blowouts, they’ve also managed to come back to win games they had no business winning (they have Marreese Speights to thank for that), and can now add another crunch-time victory to their list of various wins (the first crunch-time win came against the Portland Trail Blazers when Thompson hit a game-winning fadeaway). The bottom line: pretty or ugly, they keep finding ways to win games, and Curry knows it too:
Gotta win them all sorts of way. S/O #DubNation for bringing the energy tonight. We needed it!
— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) December 3, 2014
And to think, Curry was actually questionable heading into this game due to an ankle tweak from the previous game (no thanks to the jinxing powers of yours truly).
The Warriors are now 15-2 – good for a tie for the best record in the league with the Memphis Grizzlies. Keep in mind, they have done all of this without a key contributor in David Lee, who is due to make his return any day now. Barring any unforeseen injuries, this group has the potential to be one of the best teams the NBA has ever seen, and that is not an exaggeration.
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James Park is a blogger and editor of Sheridan Hoops. Follow him on twitter @SheridanBlog.