After suffering in the second quarter the controversial expulsion of Draymond Green, the Golden State Warriors recovered in the second half to score the victory away from home in a very exciting first game of the West semifinal against the memphis grizzlies by 116-117.
In the absence of 1.18 for the break, Draymond Green punched Brandon Clarke in the face trying to block his shot and then grabbed the Grizzlies player by the jersey, who ended up on the ground.
Everything indicated that the play would end in a flagrant type 1, but the referees, whose performance was much discussed throughout the afternoon, they whistled a flagrant type 2 after reviewing the images and expelled Green.
Without his reference in the interior and the defense, the Warriors gave a great image in the last two quarters and they were more successful than Memphis in a very close outcome.
Ja Morant he had a drive at the buzzer to give the Grizzlies the win but his shot didn’t go in.
jordan poole (31 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists) and Stephen Curry (24 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists) were the leading scorers for the Warriors, although the key player in the end was Klay Thompson with a providential triple with 36 seconds to go.
Ja Morant (34 points, 9 rebounds and 10 assists) was as close to the triple-double as being the hero of some Grizzlies in which he also shone Jaren Jackson Jr. (33 points, with 6 triples, and 10 rebounds).
100mph fastball@StateFarm || Assist of the Night pic.twitter.com/YjLByMGDzL
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) May 1, 2022
This Western semifinal comes with the attractive to see on the field some veteran Warriors and hardened in a thousand battles (in addition to three rings in the last decade) against some rebellious and impetuous Grizzlies that threaten to turn the NBA upside down.
The second game of the series will be played this Tuesday also in Memphis.
Controversy and emotion until the end
Payton, a novelty in the Warriors quintet instead of Poole or Looney, soon agreed with his coach, Steve Kerr, showing off with a fantastic kill on Bane.
However, the star of the first quarter was Morant, fantastic with 14 points for some Grizzlies that came out at full speed and clearly surpassed some Warriors weighed down by the two fouls by Curry and Thompson (32-24).
In the second quarter, Poole freshened up the Warriors’ arid offense, but Melton and Jackson Jr. took care of holding down some Grizzlies catapulted by the great atmosphere in Memphis.
When the visitors had come to a single point Green’s controversial expulsion camesomething that seemed to disconnect the Warriors and that allowed the Grizzlies to go ahead to the locker room (61-56).
With Curry, Thompson and Payton each fouling three entering the second half, the Warriors had a fabulous challenge at the restart and they responded wonderfully.
A 5-12 in less than four minutes, capped off with one more additional 3-pointer from Curryput Golden State back in the match (66-68).
The third quarter was also a 3-point fest with Jackson Jr. throwing heavy artillery at the Grizzlies and Poole answering without hesitation in the Warriors.
Already in the last quarter (90-91), two triples by Poole and Thompson, increasingly connected, they turned on all the alarms for the premises (93-103 with 9.28 to go).
However, a 9-0 run, which Jackson Jr. finished with his umpteenth triplenarrowed the score again until Morant tied the game again with only 3.22 to go (108-108).
To finish off such an exciting meeting, the last minute had everything.
Thompson hit a 3-pointer, Curry stole the ball from Morant on the next playand Thompson, one of the best shooters in NBA history, surprisingly missed both of his free throws.
on the rebound, the referees were once again protagonists when decreeing jump between two for not knowing who had been the last player to touch the ball before going out.
The Grizzlies won that jump with 3.6 seconds left, but the move designed for Morant in the time-out was unsuccessful and the Warriors sang victory.