It’s that time of year: the NBA playoffs are here and the wild west has got wilder. The Warriors snatched victory from the jaws of defeat courtesy an impossible three pointer from Stephen Curry which sent the game into overtime. The Warriors put on an offensive display in overtime to get past the Pelicans.
The basketball saying “He who controls the rebounds controls the game.” was definitely true in the case of Golden State. They had just 10 offensive rebounds in total till the third quarter. They managed to grab ten offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter alone, which helped them to take the game to overtime. Stephen Curry was the top scorer for the Warriors with 40 points and 9 assists, followed by Klay Thompson who had 28 points in the game.
New Orleans led the game by 13 points in the third quarter. However, they lost the game by being unable to grab the defensive rebounds towards the end of the regulation period in the fourth quarter. They were also unable to defend the 3 point shot during overtime. The bright spot for New Orleans Pelicans was the fact that 58 points were scored by the bench players. Of these, 26 points points were scored by Ryan Andersen who in overtime shot a 3 point bomb in order to cut the Warriors lead by a single point. Anthony Davis had a double-double with 29 points and 15 rebounds.
Looking at the box score the Warriors won the game, but not only by having +4 advantage on rebounds. They also forced New Orleans to commit 15 turnovers as the Warriors had commited 10 turnovers themselves. The game was a high scoring one with five lead changes and the score being tied twice.
All said and done the Warriors will try to go for a clean sweep in their next game against the Pelicans in order to progress to the next round. This will be a huge accomplishment for first year coach Steve Kerr as the Warriors will be the first team in this years NBA playoffs to record a clean sweep.
Guess the Lakers players!
