Culture

Cracks beginning to show as Warriors blow another big lead in loss to Nets


SAN FRANCISCO — After a fantastic first month of the season, some of the Warriors’ issues from last year are starting to float to the surface.

After blowing a 17-point lead in a loss at San Antonio over the weekend, the Warriors similarly collapsed from a peak of an 18-point edge in the third quarter. Even with the highest-scoring bench in the league, the Warriors are having trouble in minutes Steph Curry sits. And when he’s on the court, he can’t always save them.

Curry, despite scoring 28 points, couldn’t rescue the Warriors on Monday night against an undermanned and overmatched Nets team at the Chase Center. The Warriors (12-5) got outscored 41-28 in the fourth quarter, running on empty for a second consecutive game.

Dennis Schroder scored 17 of his 31 points in the fourth quarter, handing the Warriors a 128-120 loss.

For a second straight game, Jonathan Kuminga was unavailable with an illness. And for a second straight game, the Warriors missed his scoring punch.

The Nets, on the second night of a back-to-back, didn’t have Ben Simmons, Dorian Finney-Smith, Nic Claxton or Noah Clowney available. And Cam Johnson got ruled out in the first half due to an ankle sprain.

Still, Brooklyn took an early lead. Eleven of the Nets’ first 17 shots came from behind the arc, and they hit six of them.

The Warriors also started hot from deep, nailing six of their first 10 triples — including a 3-for-3 start from Steph Curry.

Then the Warriors’ bench ignited a 17-5 run to start the second quarter, with Brandin Podziemski sticking a step-back 3 to punctuate it. Lindy Waters III, who started 4-for-4 from the floor, sank a quick-release 3 from the corner and Kevon Looney added a drop-step score down low.

But really, the Warriors’ bench units had more life defensively than any Warriors group did in the first quarter. They flew around the court, rotating and swarming to shooters to run them off the line, Looney cleaning drives up in the lane.

Moses Moody chipped in 15 in his first eight minutes, converting a pair of layups through contact and adding a trio of 3s. His at-rim finishing and driving ability, particularly from the corners, has been a visible development for him this season.

Moody closed the first half by breaking up what could have been an alley-oop from a baseline out-of-bounds play, sending the Warriors into half with a 67-58 lead. They outscored the Nets by 13 in the second quarter.

Without Johnson, Thomas had even brighter of a green light to shoot than he normally does. The shooting guard stayed efficient, dropping 23 points in his first 21 minutes on 10 field goal attempts, but he didn’t have much help. Until Schroder went nuclear.

Related Articles

Golden State Warriors |

Joel Embiid, Steph Curry and the face of the franchise spectrum

Golden State Warriors |

Warriors run out of …read more

Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment

      

(Visited 1 times, 1 visits today)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *