It was a wild scene at Oracle Arena tonight as the Golden State Warriors beat the Orlando Magic in overtime 123-120 with Monta Ellis and Dorell Wright making personal and Warriors history. Sure am glad I made it to Oracle for this one.
The Warriors were down by as much as 21 points in the first half, but came out firing in the third quarter, taking the lead with about 4 minutes left in the period. As a team the W’s shot 49.5% (46-93); Monta lead all scorers with 39 points on 14-24 shooting, including a carrer best 7-9 from downtown, including 11 assists, 4 steals, and a block. Not to be outdone, Dorell Wirght made a mind-boggling 8 three pointers, finishing the game with 32 on 12-17 shooting. As a team Golden State set a new franchise record with 21 threes, outdoing the old record of 17. Steph Curry added 22 and 12 assists, while David Lee had 16 and 9 assists.
The Warriors kept MVP candidate Dwight Howard to only 13 points for the game, although he did have an impressive 21 rebounds. Former Warrior Jason Richardson had 30 points with 7 three’s, while Jameer Nelson and Hedo Turkoglu added 24 a piece. Orlando had 15 threes of their own but committed 18 turnovers in the process.
This was probably the most exciting basketball game I’d ever been to, the energy inside Oracle was insane the whole second half, and was down right electric in overtime. The Warriors showed some serious heart tonight, and is their best win of the season in my opinion.
With the win it moves the W’s to 29-36 for the season with their next game on Sunday against the Minnesota Timberwolves at 6:00 PT. I’ll be at that game too, even if it’s half as good as this game, I’d still be totally satisfied.