A Scorching Hot Shooting Night Propelled The Warriors To A Game 3 Blowout Of The Grizzlies

A Scorching Hot Shooting Night Propelled The Warriors To A Game 3 Blowout Of The Grizzlies

The Golden State Warriors put forth quite the offensive display on Saturday night during Game 3 of their Western Conference Semifinal series against the Memphis Grizzlies. Despite Memphis’ offense looking solid and yet another monster game for Ja Morant, the Warriors seemingly could not miss, with the original Splash Brothers being joined by some of their newer teammates en route to a 142-112 win to take a 2-1 lead in the series.

Memphis started the game scorching hot from three. The team was able to race out to an early 12-point lead thanks to their shots from deep falling — the Grizzlies hit six of their first eight attempts from downtown, with Morant, Jaren Jackson Jr., Desmond Bane, and Ziaire Williams all getting in on the fun.

Despite the early onslaught, though, their lead was only two points after one, thanks in large part to a 9-3 run to close the quarter by the Dubs.

That torrid form continued into the second, as Golden State raced out to a 10-2 start to force a Grizzlies timeout.

Throughout the rest of the half, the 1-2 punch of Andrew Wiggins and Steph Curry helped keep Memphis at arm’s length. Wiggins ended the first half with 15 points, while Curry scored 10 of his 13 points in the second quarter.

The Grizzlies, unsurprisingly, got a big half out of Morant, whose 17 points led all scorers. It wasn’t enough, though, because despite the fact that Memphis had 11 first-half triples, the Warriors went 26-for-37 (a scorching 70.3 percent) from the field and held a 64-57 lead.

As they’ve done so many times over the years, Golden State emerged from the tunnel at halftime in front of their home crowd and landed the first haymaker of the second half. The Dubs opened up the period scoring the first 10 points — Klay Thompson hit a pair of triples during this stretch — and saw their lead balloon to as many as 23 in the third quarter.

There was also a classic Thompson heat check that went in, as he hoisted a three off of one foot while moving and knocked it down.

While Memphis was able to stop the bleeding a bit, the damage was done. Golden State’s torrid shooting meant they won the quarter, 37-23, and took a 101-80 lead into the fourth.

The fourth quarter followed the same script prior to the two teams emptying their benches. The Warrior offense just kept humming, and despite the best efforts of Morant — who eventually left the game with an apparent leg injury — Memphis just could not keep up with the onslaught. Things went so poorly for them that the usually mild-mannered Kyle Anderson picked up a pair of technical fouls and got ejected.

Curry’s 30 points and six assists were tops for the Dubs, while Jordan Poole gave them 27 off the bench and 21 with nine rebounds. Both Jonathan Kuminga (18 points) and Wiggins (17 points) joined them with double-figure scoring, and as a team, Golden State shot 53-for-84 (62.7 percent) from the field and 17-for-32 (51.6 percent) from three. Morant gave the Grizzlies 34 points, seven assists, three rebounds, and three steals.

Game 4 between the Warriors and Grizzlies will tip off on Monday night at 10 p.m. ET on TNT.

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