Curry’s 29 points top Warriors but aren’t enough to hold off rally by Orlando.
After watching a botched defensive rotation free up Magic guard Terrence Ross for a 3pointer with less than two minutes left Friday night, Warriors center Draymond Green popped out his mouthguard, shook his head and muttered an expletive to himself.
A 13point lead with 8:50 remaining had given way to a fivepoint deficit. Though Stephen Curry added suspense with two late 3pointers, the Warriors were left staring down a 124120 loss to the Magic at Amway Center in Orlando.
This was a painful reminder of Golden State’s biggest issue: inconsistency. Just when the Warriors appear to be making strides and settling into a flow, they endure a frustrating loss such as Friday’s. What made it especially vexing was that, for much of the second half, Golden State looked poised to notch its first threegame winning streak of the season.
“This one hurt the most just because I thought we had this one in the bag,” said forward Juan ToscanoAnderson, who’s in his first full NBA season. “But there’s my welcometotheNBA moment. A 10point lead late, and you’re still not safe.”
The Warriors nearly overcame a 15point, firstquarter deficit, only to dig a 17point hole early in the third quarter. But just as a win seemed to be slipping away, Golden State used a 5222 onslaught to seize a 10693 lead with less than nine minutes left. That included a 43point third quarter — the Warriors’ highestscoring quarter this season.
The ball movement and stingy defense that defined Golden State’s surge disappeared when it mattered most. Free to attack driving lanes, shoot open jumpers and benefit from the Warriors’ illadvised attempts early in the shot clock, the Magic closed the game on a 3114 blitz.
Golden State head coach Steve Kerr attributed the fourthquarter collapse to an overhauled roster figuring out its identity. Numerous times this season, the Warriors have channeled the freeflowing style that was a driving force in their recent dynasty, only to suddenly stop making the extra pass and start settling for bad shots.
As Friday’s loss illustrated, that sometimes all happens within the same game. Kerr noted that the Warriors are hardly the NBA’s only erratic team. As the league tries to play a season during the coronavirus pandemic, many clubs are struggling to build momentum. For example, the Eastern Conference’s thirdplace team — the Bucks — entered Friday only three games above .500.
“It felt like we were right there, and I still feel like we are,” said Kerr, who could welcome back centers James Wiseman (sprained left wrist) and Kevon Looney (sprained left ankle) as soon as Tuesday’s game against the Knicks. “We’ve gotten dramatically better in recent weeks. … But hey, we are where we are. We’re fighting. We’re improving. We just haven’t gotten over the hump yet.”
The good news for the Warriors is that they can exorcise the memory of Friday’s loss on Saturday in Charlotte, N.C. But for Golden State to know it has experienced any sort of breakthrough, it’ll need to do more than rout the Hornets.
Golden State has had a slew of memorable wins this season, and has come back from big deficits. That will mean little, however, if the Warriors can’t string together victories and make the playoffs.
After Friday’s loss, the Warriors were eighth in the Western Conference at 1614. It didn’t matter that Curry (29 points, 11 assists and seven rebounds) snapped out of a shooting rut with backtoback 3pointers that put Golden State down one with 23.2 seconds left. It didn’t matter that Kelly Oubre Jr. continued his weekslong scoring binge with 26 points. It didn’t matter that the Warriors shot 19for42 (45.2%) from 3point range, or that they posted 37 assists to only 13 turnovers.
In the wake of another letdown, they were in a familiar spot: struggling to find answers for their consistency issues.
“We let another one get away,” Green said. “It’s kind of been the story line of the season.”