The 2020-21 Warriors are fighting for a playoff spot, and they had a good chance to inch closer to .500 with a matchup against the Toronto Raptors on Friday night. After all, the Raptors came into their matchup with the Warriors having lost four straight games — two of which came against the lowly Pistons and Thunder — and 13 of their last 14 overall. This was a game for Golden State to get back on track, even without the services of star guard Steph Curry.
So, naturally, they lost by 53 points. That's a point differential that has only been seen in 23 games ever. Even the Mavericks-Clippers game from earlier this season, in which the Mavericks set the NBA record for the largest halftime lead (50 points), ended up being a closer game (51-point differential) than Friday night's blowout.
Here's the total list of NBA games with the same or larger point differential when the final buzzer sounded, and it's not all that long considering the thousands upon thousands of games that have been played (via Stathead):
At one point late in the game, the Warriors had been trailing by 60, which would have put them in extremely exclusive (and undesirable) company in the NBA record books, as shown above.
Another remarkable statistic from the game was that the 51-point differential between the Raptors and the Warriors across the second and third quarters was the largest in a two-quarter span in league history, according to Elias Sports (h/t Connor Letourneau). So, all things considered, the fact that the final score wasn't even in the top-20 widest point differentials makes it seem as though the outcome wasn't all that bad.
But head coach Steve Kerr wasn't as optimistic, calling it "humiliating... for everyone involved" after the game.
Naturally, Twitter had a field day with the complete demolition of Golden State, both during the game and after the final tally was posted on the scoreboard..
Golden State's leading scorer was Andrew Wiggins, with 15 points, while Jordan Poole and Nico Mannion were the only other Warriors to score in double figures with 10 points apiece. On the other side, Pascal Siakam dominated with 36 points, seven rebounds and five assists while three teammates — Gary Trent Jr., O.G. Anunoby and Malachi Flynn all exceeded 15 points.
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