Warriors from the third quarter return to victorious fashion vs. Thunder originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The San Francisco-during the course of their championship seasons was Warrior’s widely recognized around the NBA as the best team in the third quarter in basketball. Time time again, the Golden State would make close games to blow -out with their dominance coming out of the break.
Although this feeling has not been much since these days, Magic will appear on Wednesday night against the best team in basketball.
In the third quarter against Oklahoma City Thunder, Warriors shot better than 50 percent from the floor, had a light rebounding advantage and caused five players to score five points or more to help erase a 10-point break deficit.
That momentum transferred into the fourth quarter and helped the Golden State hold on to A 116-109 victory. It was a game that signaled to the rest of NBA that Warriors may be better than most people thought.
In many ways, the third quarter felt much like old times for Stephen Curry.
“That’s why we won the game,” said the two-time NBA MVP. “There is a decision: Do you want to go down and just wav the white flag? We came out and gave ourselves life for the first six minutes. Just to get hold of a lead and look up like ‘Oh, we got some speed.’
“It’s huge for the team’s morality, the fact that we could answer every race they had. It gave us a chance, and then down the stretch we checked the last 4-5 minutes of the game, which has not been our strong suit. It was a good feeling. “
Although Golden State did a lot of things right all night, the third quarter was when the game’s momentum changed.
Warriors released 11 assists on 13 buckets and made five 3-Pointers in the third. They also played unique defense and limited Thunder to 26 points on 9-of-24 shooting.
Gary Payton II got things to the Golden State with a three-point game 69 seconds into the second half. Buddy HIELD added a 3-pointer and layup, then Kevon Looney entered the action with a thunderous thump giving Warriors their first lead in the quarter.
“It was huge,” Looney said. “We started slowly and we got in a hole. It’s a fantastic team over there, so we know we had to get out (after the break), hit first and get our audience behind us if we want any chance of winning that game. We answered in the third and we held the momentum. “
The challenge now is that in the third quarter Warriors’ Momentum will be transferred for the rest of the season.
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