The Milwaukee Bucks had already ended the Golden State Warriors’ season-opening streak and then dared to end their home winning streak at Oracle Arena.
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After the final buzzer Friday, Bucks guard O.J. Mayo confronted Green about pregame comments he had directed at Michael Carter-Williams, who had celebrated the Bucks handing the Warriors their lone loss with a look toward their bench. Thompson has now shot at 50 percent or better from the field in three of his last four games, and extended his streak of games with multiple three-pointers to 20.
Asked whether that was what the altercation was mostly about, Green said, “Once again, I’m not going to go into what he said, what you think he may have said, he may have said or may not have said, but no man is going to touch my head”.
Seven Bucks scored in double figures, including Monroe, who had a second consecutive double-double against the Warriors with 10 points and 13 rebounds to go with seven assists.
Green had 21 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, and Ezeli contributed a 14-point, 10-rebound double-double for the Warriors, who were playing for the second time on a five-game homestand. At that point, Klay Thompson put the Warriors on his shoulders, scoring 11-straight points for Golden State to pull the Dubs within 66-56 with 1:52 left in the quarter.
The Warriors made a big fourth quarter push to get back into the game and take the lead.
Last result: Beat Milwaukee 121-112 on Friday. “We’re trying to compete for a championship”.
“We were very public about the fact we wanted to get revenge, but then we didn’t come out and play with that edge and that mentality”, Warriors interim coach Luke Walton said.
It was the Warriors who were expected to be the team coming out of the gates fired up from suffering their first loss of the season six days earlier at Milwaukee.
Green also said after Friday’s win that he was not satisfied with the Warriors’ performance, despite the victory. The Bucks would climb within five points of the Warriors with less than 25 seconds left, but some timely free throw shooting by Golden State erased any hopes of a last minute comeback. Little by little, however, the Warriors would scratch and claw their way back into the game.
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The Warriors took their first lead since the first quarter, 103-102, on a dunk by center Festus Ezeli with 5:01 to go. But Milwaukee responded and settled things down out of a timeout as Michael Carter-Williams made a couple of baskets to earn the Bucks an eight point advantage heading into the fourth.
