There’s no denying that the Warriors are reeling right now.
They can’t take care of the ball. They can’t win on the road. They can’t get out of their own way. They can’t close games.
With Tuesday’s 116-109 loss to the Miami Heat, the Warriors lost their third straight contest on what’s become an ugly road trip. The Heat are stacked with veterans and are more solid than the Charlotte Hornets and Detroit Pistons, who handed the Warriors the first two defeats on the road swing.
Despite the 0-3 start to the trip, the Warriors sounded optimistic about the work they did through the first three quarters of Tuesday’s game.
"We know it’s a long season,” Andrew Wiggins said after an efficient 21-point effort. “The vibes are still positive. We know we’re gonna get right on track."
The Warriors collapsed down the stretch, as they let the Heat go on a 12-2 run to close out the game. Miami outscored Golden State 30-15 in the final period. Not even Steph Curry’s 10th career triple-double could save the Dubs, as the superstar scored 23 points with 13 rebounds and 13 assists.
“We’re still finding our way,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “All in all I was pleased with the effort. We played well enough to win. I give Miami credit."
Klay Thompson appeared to be on the verge of a huge breakout game, but missed two 3-point attempts in the final 66 seconds and got beat by Jimmy Butler on the dagger from 17 feet with 9.5 seconds left. He finished with 19 points and is still seeking his first 20-point effort of the season. In the final five minutes, the Warriors went 1-of-7 from the field.
The run to end the game was bad for the Warriors, but not as terrible as the 20-3 run the Heat put together to end the first quarter. Recently extended third-year center James Wiseman had a rough five-minute stretch in particular, when he committed three fouls and didn’t score, while also getting exposed on defense.
Moses Moody made some solid contributions, but Jonathan Kuminga received his second DNP (did not play) of the season, as his other one also came against the Heat on Thursday. Once again, all of the Warriors starters registered positive plus-minus ratings while all of the bench players were in the negative.
"The bench stuff, the young guys, that’ll all play itself out and we’ll be OK,” Kerr said.
The Heat were also able to stifle the Warriors offense by intermittently going to a zone look throughout the game.
“They were flying around in the zone,” Draymond Green said. “Their lesser defenders that were on the floor at that time, they were able to hide with the zone. We just didn’t execute well. Gotta try to get in the weak spots of the zone and attack it and I don’t think we did a good job of that.”
Once again, turnovers also played a massive role in the loss, as the Warriors committed 20 of them. Jordan Poole discarded any thoughts of a miracle comeback with 9.5 seconds left, when he airmailed an inbounds pass across the court into the third row, way over the head of Curry.
The Warriors (3-5) are just throwing away games early in the season. The loss to Charlotte on Saturday was particularly poor, as they led by four with less than a minute to go. Championships aren’t won in game No. 8, but clearly the Warriors have some major kinks to work out.
“We are not a moral victory team, by any stretch,” Curry said. “But can clearly say we played better tonight. … I hope everybody’s frustrated with the results. But the process is pretty solid.”
