LOS ANGELES — To try and pin the blame on a single player or a single facet of the game for Saturday’s Warriors loss would be futile. The whole damn operation was out of sorts.
After taking an 11-point lead early in the second quarter, Warriors fans might have been thinking about a gentleman’s sweep into the Western Conference Finals. The Lakers looked out of sorts and were sagging on defense, overmatched for the time being. Then the script got flipped. Badly.
Golden State couldn’t buy a bucket the rest of the game as the Lakers turned Game 3 of the second-round matchup into a blowout, winning 127-97 to take a 2-1 series lead.
"We had a lot of turnovers in the second quarter when we lost that lead," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "We were up 11, then we started turning it over and taking quick shots and that led to their transition and their ability to get to the foul line. I thought that's when the game changed."
The Lakers controlled the tempo of the game with a massive 37-17 advantage at the free throw line that didn’t allow the Warriors to get any offensive rhythm. The Warriors turned the ball over 19 times, leading to 27 Lakers points, and played flimsy transition defense reminiscent of their road struggles throughout the regular season. The Dubs also lost their cool with three technical fouls in the final three minutes of the second quarter.
After shooting 11-of-21 in the first quarter, the Warriors went 15-of-46 in the second and third quarters to fall into an 18-point by the final period, which was essentially just 12 minutes of garbage time. For the game, the Warriors shot 39.6 percent from the field and 29.5 percent from 3-point land.
"We kinda let our foot off the gas and the Lakers took advantage of it," Kerr said. "They were great."
Golden State’s championship trio wasn’t immune to the Game 3 hiccups. Draymond Green was a relative non-factor, as he was on-and-off the floor while racking up five fouls, a technical, two points, four rebounds, two assists and a team-worst minus-27 in plus/minus.
Despite getting thrown off his game by the whistles and being animated all night, Draymond said he won't change his approach going forward.
"I won't adapt," Draymond said of the refereeing. "I'm gonna keep playing the same defense I've played for 11 years."
Klay Thompson cooled down after 11 first-quarter points, scoring just four more points the rest of the way. Steph Curry led the squad with 23 points but struggled from the field (9-of-21) and was throwing up desperation heaves in the third quarter.
"We had control of the game and we were in pretty good shape," Kerr said. "That's when we lost our poise. I think we might have had (three) technicals in the first half and 12 turnovers at halftime. You're on the road, you're going against a great team, a great defensive team in particular, you know the crowd's gonna be into it -- gotta be more poised."
Even key role players like Kevon Looney and JaMychal Green struggled to make an impact, while guard Jordan Poole was out of control and scored five points on 2-of-9 shooting.
The Warriors will have to flush Saturday’s appearance and hope it's the lone dud of the series, because LeBron James and Anthony Davis will be well-rested once again after sitting out the fourth quarter for the second straight game.
While Game 1 went down the wire, the Warriors and Lakers have traded blowouts the past two contests. Golden State also responded from a 2-0 deficit to win their first-round series against the Kings in seven games, so Steph expects to see the same response against the Lakers.
"Last series proved that we could figure it out and overcome some of the challenges that we had," Curry said. "Unfortunately, we gotta do it again, based on how tonight went. It's not ideal in terms of how you wanna perform in this series, but it's not the end of the world for us, in terms of trying to bounce back."
