Stephen Curry joked that he wanted to give Festus Ezeli a miniature trophy for his dominant fourth-quarter effort in the championship-clinching game last season.
The point guard is going to have to come up with something much bigger to match Ezeli’s performance in Tuesday’s 110-99 in Game 2 of the Western Conference semifinal series.
“He changed the whole game with his pick-and-roll defense, his presence around the rim and the energy he gave us,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “… It was a phenomenal effort by Fezzy to change the game.”
After sitting out the first 80 minutes of the best-of-seven series, Ezeli emerged from the bench with the Warriors trailing by 10 points and 4:09 on the third-quarter clock.