Hang the banners, folks. Close down Market Street. The Warriors have their new worst loss of a season. With an unfathomable game-winner from Nikola Jokic, Golden State lost 130-127, blowing an 18-point fourth-quarter lead.
They did nearly everything they could to throw the game away in the fourth quarter. It was a disasterclass of biblical proportions. Here are three takeaways from the collapse:
Klay gets going early, then goes quiet
Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson got out of their three-game funk Tuesday night, and it carried over for Thompson to Thursday... until the fourth quarter. The same was true for Curry (more on him below).
Thompson - after opening up Tuesday night about his heartfelt "final chapter" discussion with Steve Kerr - looked far more relaxed. He was locked in early, getting good looks and converting them. He had 15 points and 4 threes (4-of-8) in the first half.
Unlike in some of his frustrating performances, he was steady. He kept up without pressing. He was locked in defensively without fouling overzealously.
The Warriors as a whole didn't foul Nikola Jokic near as much as the last time these teams played - in that 120-114 Christmas Day loss that led to a Kerr postgame tirade. They sent Jokic to the foul line just seven times (he even missed one attempt) compared to the 18 times he went to the line in that loss.
Having Thompson play under control and efficient always gives the Warriors an excellent chance to win. Any game he scores 20-plus points and defends without fouling hearkens back to his prime, and takes heaps of pressure off Stephen Curry's shoulders.
His 24 points (9-of-18, 4-of-10 from deep), 3 rebounds and 3 assists gave Golden State breathing room into the fourth quarter.
But maybe that early effort cost him. Thompson had 2 points in the fourth quarter and was 1-of-4 from the field, missing his only 3-pointer. He played all 12 minutes and looked as tired as his Splash Brother.
Murray and Jokic are absurd... and that game-winner
You can sort of pencil in Nikola Jokic for 25, 10 and 10. On nights like Thursday, he somehow does that quietly before turning it on late in the fourth.
He was outrageously good, dropping 34 points, 9 rebounds and 10 assists on 13-of-16 shooting and making both of his 3-point attempts. His game-winner was roughly a 40-foot fading three that deserved to go if only because of how pathetic the Warriors were in the fourth.
Golden State was outscored 36-to-20 in the fourth. They looked like they wanted to lose and accomplished that goal successfully.
His co-star Jamal Murray was outstanding, too. The fact that he was 8-of-16 on his 25-point, 6-assist night doesn't indicate how his performance felt. It didn't seem like the Warriors had much of a defensive answer for him.
That's not even mentioning the dominance from Aaron Gordon, who was the real difference-maker in the fourth. He had 30 points and 9 rebounds, with 15 of those points and 3 rebounds in the fourth. He had Steve Kerr scrambling for answers from anyone but Jonathan Kuminga.
Denver also got 19 points and 5 rebounds from Peyton Watson, which was enough to turn the game from uncomfortable to problematic.
The Warriors got contributions all over the place, but not in the fourth.
Dario Saric had an outstanding 23 minutes (13 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, a steal), and Brandin Podziemski was impressive once again (13 points, 3-of-4 from deep, 2 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal). Kevon Looney played Trayce Jackson-Davis to the bench with one of those old school, physicality-focused performances, but he, too, struggled late.
None of that mattered because they didn't show up when it mattered. One major question for Steve Kerr to answer is why he went away from Kuminga completely.
Kuminga had 16 points (5-of-7), 4 rebounds and 4 assists but came out of the game with 5:48 left in the third quarter and did not return. He didn't have a perfect game, but it was clear that young, fresh legs might have been helpful. In a fourth quarter he seemed desperate for a spark, he declined to give Kuminga an opportunity.
Saric was the most impressive of that previous group, and replaced Andrew Wiggins inside of four minutes after Gordon out-rebounded Wiggins and drew a trip to the line. The fact that he was guarding Jokic in the final seconds tells you all you need to know about the Warriors' performance.
Steph breaks out in third, does Harlem Globetrotters impression, then loses steam
Remember when the Warriors used to enact thermonuclear warfare in every third quarter? Stephen Curry re-lived that for a few shining moments Thursday night. But he had almost nothing left after that third quarter.
He was omnipresent, driving, cutting, dribbling like a Globetrotter and hitting almost everything. The Globetrotter part is literal:
He had 10 third-quarter points (4-of-6 and 2-of-4 from deep) with a couple assists and a rebound before being replaced by Chris Paul with a couple minutes left.
They finished the quarter with a 12-point lead, then stretched it to 18 in the fourth.
But in the final frame, it looked clearly like Curry lost his legs. He had 7 points on a woeful 2-of-7 shooting, 1-of-4 from deep, and a game-losing, terrible turnover that set up Jokic's game-winning shot.
While he finished with 30 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists, his fourth quarter performance cost the Warriors dearly.
So in what should have been a massive win to bring Golden State back to .500, they blew it.
They leaned on their veterans, who looked spent, ahead of a back-to-back against a young (terrible) Detroit Pistons team with some familiar players who might want to prove something in San Francisco.