Warriors, Green's Shot Miss the Mark in Loss
Stephen Curry had scored 14 straight points for the Warriors when Golden State had the ball down three with 8.7 seconds remaining – but he didn’t get the chance to tie the game from long range.
Instead, seemingly trying to induce a shooting foul with a chance to tie the game at the line, Draymond Green bizarrely took a 31-footer which missed badly, the Spurs grabbed the rebound and the Warriors’ fate was sealed.
Golden State (12-12) lost in San Antonio to the Spurs (14-10) 105-100 in a contest filled with Warrior miscues. The road side finished the game with 20 turnovers to San Antonio’s 10, losing despite shooting 4% better from the field.
The Spurs’ eventual game-winner came with 12.7 seconds left, when Dejounte Murray hit a triple as the shot clock expired to make the score 101-97. Curry would make it a one-point contest with a three of his own seconds later, but after fouling and Green’s blunder, it was moot.
Recently, Steve Kerr has kept Curry on the bench to start the fourth quarter despite his pyrotechnics, and the offense came out cold in the fourth, missing their first eight shots from the field and trailing 93-86 when Curry returned with 5:33 remaining.
A team still struggling with consistency, the start of the contest against a San Antonio team without LaMarcus Aldridge was much different.
Building off of his career-high first game in Dallas, Kelly Oubre Jr. railed three first quarter 3-pointers, finishing with 12 points in the period before ending the game with twice that total. Oubre was matched from beyond the arc by Curry, who had three triples in the quarter and closed out the first with a second 3-pointer from near the hashmark on a stepback over Rudy Gay to give the Warriors a 36-27 lead.
Golden State was outshooting San Antonio by 22 percentage points from the field midway in the second quarter, but a 17-6 Spurs run highlighted by two consecutive throwaways from Green cut the Warriors’ lead to 51-48 with 3:27 left in the half.
The second period also marked the return of Eric Paschall from injury because of back spasms, providing another small-ball center for Steve Kerr in the continued absences of Kevon Looney and James Wiseman.
Wearing their Oakland jerseys to the AT&T Center – which has been a historically difficult building for Golden State to win in – the Warriors took a 59-54 into the locker room and had 12 turnovers.
Aside from the giveaways, Murray also kept the contest close as he paced the home team with 16 first-half points. The fourth-year guard paced the Spurs with 27 points, while Curry led all scorers with 32 points on 10-of-17 shooting and 6-of-11 from distance.
The second half began with more careless play and lackadaisical defense for Golden State, and after Green committed a clear path foul, the Spurs had a three-point lead early in the half. The Warriors weathered the storm, however, and with defensive intensity and a slew of assisted Oubre dunks took an 80-78 lead into the fourth.
While just barely scratching double-digit scoring with 11 points, Andrew Wiggins provided a defensive bright spot in the loss, guarding DeMar DeRozan well down the stretch and helping limit DeRozan to 21 points after back-to-back 30-point outings.
Golden State and San Antonio square off again tomorrow on the latter’s home floor, with tip-off scheduled for 5:30 p.m.