Warriors Remain Perfect in Ugly Win Over Raptors

It was a pretty first half followed by an ugly second half, but the Golden State Warriors emerged out of Tuesday night’s game against the Toronto Raptors with a 115-110 victory to remain perfect at 12-0.

Much of the second half was played at a halfcourt, slow tempo, and the Raptors were able to keep the Warriors at bay and stay in the game.

With 38 seconds left, DeMar DeRozan made a layup to cut the Warriors lead to 109-108. After a defensive stop, the Raptors had a chance to take the lead but a questionable foul was called on Lowry.

After a pair of free throws by Stephen Curry, the Raptors, without a timeout, needed a three to tie but Kyle wry

wrie went for a layup instead of a three-pointer, and was still denied at the rim.

That allowed the Warriors to come away with a tight win to become just the seventh team in NBA history to start the year 12-0.

Toronto didn’t score a field goal for nearly nine minutes in the fourth, but still managed to take the lead with free throw shooting, as the Warriors got themselves in foul trouble.

Lowry’s foul shots at 5:54 put the Raptors ahead 98-96, their first lead since the first quarter.

But the Warriors responded with a quick 7-0 run out of a timeout, starting with a lob from Draymond Green to Andrew Bogut to tie the game back up. Curry made a three, and Green’s floater put the Warriors ahead 103-98.

The Raptors’ first field goal since the 11:26 mark came from Lowry, whose three cut the lead to 105-103 with under three minutes to play.

Curry finished with a game-high 37 points to go along with nine assists. Klay Thompson had 19 points. For the Raptors, Lowry and DeRozan both recorded 28 points.

Up 16 at halftime, the Warriors allowed the Raptors back in the game on the strength of a 20-8 spurt. Toronto knocked down some open shots to cut the lead to six at 73-67 midway through the third.

Curry kept the Warriors ahead and Andre Iguodala‘s late basket gave Golden State a 90-83 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.

The Warriors went on a scintillating 28-10 run in the latter portion of the second quarter to build up a comfortable halftime advantage.

With the game tied 35-35, the Warriors took over. Thompson heated up with several jumpers, and his three with 3:25 to play gave the Warriors an eight-point advantage. The Warriors then ripped off 10 unanswered points, starting off with a steal and layup by Curry on the ensuing inbounds pass.

An alley-oop from Thompson to Andre Iguodala incited a Raptors’ timeout, but that did little to slow the Warriors’ momentum. In almost mirror, Festus Ezeli and Iguodala both grabbed tough rebounds that led to threes by Thompson and Curry, respectively to give the Warriors an 18-point lead.

The Warriors led 63-47 at halftime. Thompson had 18 points to lead the way.

Tale of the Tape

Warriors

• Field-goal percentage: 53.8% (43-80)
• Three-point percentage: 37.9% (11-29)
• Rebounds: 34
• Assists: 31
• Turnovers: 20

Raptors

• Field-goal percentage: 46.8% (37-79)
• Three-point percentage: 33.3% (6-18)
• Rebounds: 40
• Assists: 18
• Turnovers: 18

Good to Know

What’s on Tap

The Warriors head to Los Angeles for a Thursday night battle at the Clippers.