(Photo: LetsGoWarriors.com)
ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — Another depleted opponent, another letdown. As we saw most recently in Phoenix and against Houston, the Golden State Warriors played down to their competition and couldn’t respond to having the “X” on their backs.
This time, it was “the other guys” of the San Antonio Spurs, as head coach Gregg Popovich had decided to rest Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan in the wake of the road trip and not having the injured Tony Parker, who was out with a right shin contusion.
Marco Belinelli scored a career-high 28 points and donned the superhero’s cape in this episode, following in the footsteps of previous Warrior vanquishers Marcus Morris in the Phoenix Suns loss and Patrick Beverley in the home loss to the Houston Rockets.
Belinelli provided a huge spark, per Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Belinelli, a former Warriors guard, scored 17 third-quarter points, and the Spurs got a three-pointer from Danny Green to extend their lead to 75-66 with 2:22 remaining in the frame. A seldom-used lineup of Toney Douglas, Kent Bazemore, Draymond Green, Thompson and Lee got the Warriors’ deficit down to 84-81 with 9:16 remaining, and 39 seconds after re-entering the game, Curry had it tied 86-86.
Compound that with the 24 turnovers the Warriors commmitted. From Monte Poole of CSN Bay Area:
“The role players for them had a big night,” (head coach Mark) Jackson said. “More importantly, we got out of character when we established a lead. We started being careless with the basketball.
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“The way we gained the lead was by executing, defending and taking care of the basketball. We got out of character and gave them life by being reckless with the basketball.”
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Not just reckless, but 24 turnovers reckless…
Former St. Mary’s College star, Patty Mills, had a strong effort as well for the Spurs. Per Carl Steward of the San Jose Mercury:
Oh, and then there was Saint Mary’s College alum Patty Mills, who filled in nicely for Parker with 20 points.
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But in the final accounting, it was really the Warriors who did themselves in. They committed 24 turnovers — 12 in each half — resulting in 31 San Antonio points. They blew an early 14-point lead by halftime. They hoisted up 31 3-point tries and made just eight.
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“It was kind of a trap game, but coming in, I knew it’d be tough,” Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala said. “They played a solid four quarters of basketball, and we only played a good nine minutes in the first quarter.”
And yet, the Warriors made a comeback after squandering their lead. Simmons writes:
Boris Diaw put the Spurs ahead 102-99 on a two-handed dunk with 47.6 seconds left. (Stephen) Curry tied it 102-102 with 28.7 seconds on the clock after David Lee kept an offensive rebound alive for Andre Iguodala, who spotted Curry at the top of the key.
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The Warriors got 32 points and 13 rebounds from Lee – his 11th career 30-and-10 game, 30 points and 15 assists from Curry, and eight points, 18 rebounds, three blocked shots and two steals from Andrew Bogut.
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But only one other player was in double-digit scoring as Klay Thompson needed 18 shots to score 13 points, Harrison Barnes went scoreless and nine of the 10 players who got minutes committed at least one turnover.
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“You’ve got to value the basketball – every single individual on the floor,” Jackson said. “You eliminate the careless plays and make sure that you’re efficient with the basketball. We are not, and it’s hurting us. It’s hurting us bad.”
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And, it’s turning reserves and role players into one-night All-Stars. Marco Belinelli scored a team-high 28 points for San Antonio, Kawhi Leonard had 21 points and 10 rebounds, former St. Mary’s player Patty Mills went for 20 points, and the Spurs’ bench outscored the Warriors’ reserves 41-13.
Sarah Todd of SFBay.ca broke down the final sequence, in which Tiago Splitter appeared to have goal-tended the Spurs’ game-winning shot:
With 2.1 seconds on the game clock, Tiago Splitter tipped in a missed put-back from Diaw while Bogut and Mstrong>(Draymond) Green scrambled, failing to come up with a rebound and the Spurs took a two point lead.
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Bogut said it was a tough play that he would have to re-watch, but bad play earlier in the game was where the game was lost:
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“That’s what everyone will look at but we didn’t lose the game with one or two plays in the fourth quarter, we lost the game in the first three quarters.”
After the game, Lee said that he had talked with one of the three referees (presumably not the lead official) as to why there wasn’t a review of the play. Lee said that the referee had wondered the same:
However, as a Warriors fan tweeted us after the game while we reported from the locker room, the play was not reviewable unless the goaltending call was made in the first place:
@LetsGoWarriors The play is not reviewable unless there was a goaltending call. In that case, there wasn’t. #GoSpursGo
— Aaerios (@Aaerios) December 20, 2013
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The ability to come back and Curry deliver again in a clutch moment was lost in the flurry of frustration from the team’s earlier turnovers, another bad game by Thompson, and the expectations of the roster the Warriors build in the offseason.
@poormanscommish play to the competition is in their dna
— Arya (@LostHawkGSW) December 20, 2013
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Even Curry couldn’t shake it, tweeting after the game:
Bad bad bad
— Stephen Curry (@StephenCurry30) December 20, 2013
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And Bogut was still upset as well:
I don't usually tweet after games, but there was no excuse for that, period.
— Andrew Bogut (@andrewbogut) December 20, 2013
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