Golden State Warriors Survive to Beat 76ers

In a game reminiscent of Saturday night’s win over the Knicks, the Golden State Warriors eked out an 89-84 victory over the lowly Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center on Monday night.

The Warriors (41-9) built up a bit fourth quarter advantage only to see the 76ers (12-41) trim the lead and force the Warriors to play to the end.

After a stagnant first half, the Warriors showed signs of life in the third quarter and pulled away in the fourth with a 14-2 run, giving them a 81-63 lead with nine minutes to play. It was the bench that ignited the run, with Marreese Speights hitting three jumpers, Shaun Livingston creating steals and Leandro Barbosa finishing at the rim.

But the 76ers came back, going on a 12-0 run to cut the 18-point lead down to just six, with Robert Covington scoring eight of those points. Andre Iguodala ended the run with a layup inside that put the Warriors back up eight at 83-75 at the 4:16 mark, snapping a nearly five-minute scoreless streak.

Covington led all scorers with 21 points on 7-of-15 shooting.

Free throws by Curry down the stretch iced the game for the Warriors, who survived a tougher-than-expected battle from the 76ers.

Up by three at the half, the Warriors came out on a 9-0 run to take a 55-46 lead, the starters finally stringing together some baskets and taking advantage of 76ers’ turnovers. A steal and a flush by Iguodala at 2:38 of the third maintained the nine-point lead for the Warriors.

But the 76ers hung tough while the Warriors were stone cold on offense, shooting sub-40.0 percent through three quarters. Philadelphia scored six of the final eight points of the third to pull within 67-61 heading into the fourth.

Stephen Curry led the Warriors with 20 points and Barbosa had 16 off the bench in a low-scoring affair.

Draymond Green left the game at the 3:42 mark of the fourth quarter after spraining his right ankle stepping on Nerlens Noel‘s foot. The Warriors called a timeout and Green had to be helped to the locker room.

The Warriors played a fairly lackadaisical and unmotivated first half. They committed nine turnovers and were out-scored in the paint 30-22 by the 76ers.

Eight points by Nerlens Noel in the first five minutes propelled the 76ers to a strong start, while the Warriors missed five of their first seven shots.

The Warriors trailed 24-20 after one quarter, which was punctuated by a spectacular play by K.J. McDaniels, who lobbed the ball off the backboard to himself for a dunk that put the 76ers ahead with 1:25 to play.

The bench unit sparked a mini-rally to begin the second quarter; Barbosa scored five straight points as part of a 10-0 run that tied the game at 30-30.

But the Warriors had two scoreless streaks of more than three minutes in the quarter, missing six straight shots at one juncture. A three by Curry with under a minute to play finally took the lid off the bucket and gave the Warriors a 44-41 lead. On their next possession, Green scored his only two points of the half with a thunderous slam down the lane, and the Warriors took a 46-43 advantage into halftime.

Curry and Klay Thompson combined to shoot 5-of-17 from the field and just 2-of-10 from beyond-the-arc in the first half, while the Warriors as a team shot just 40.0 percent from the field.

The 76ers were without their second-leading scorer, Michael Carter Williams, who was day-to-day and ruled out with a right foot injury.

Tale of the Tape

Warriors

• Field-goal percentage: 40.0% (34-85)
• Three-point percentage: 24.1% (7-29)
• Rebounds: 40
• Assists: 26
• Turnovers: 14

76ers

• Field-goal percentage: 41.8% (33-79)
• Three-point percentage: 29.3% (7-24)
• Rebounds: 52
• Assists: 21
• Turnovers: 27

Good to Know

The last time the Warriors scored less than 100 points was 21 games ago on Christmas night, a 100-86 loss to the Clippers.

What’s on Tap

The Warriors travel to Minnesota to take on the Timberwolves on Wednesday in their final game before the All-Star break.