Warriors have never played better in a loss this season

All right, here’s my quick thought after seeing the Warriors lose to the Hawks 124-116 on Friday night.

This feels like the first time the Warriors played perfectly fine — and yet lost. We’ve come to expect that when the Warriors are pretty good, they win. And pretty good is going to do it most of the time for them, no doubt. But not all the time and certainly not all the time against good teams.

It’s kind of weird, but the numbers say the Warriors were quite solid against the Hawks.

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined for 55 points, made almost half their shots and half their 3s together. Draymond Green got a double-double (and we all know his double-doubles are better than David Lee’s, right?), including 20 rebounds and a bunch of assists. Harrison Barnes chipped in, made half his shots, despite a miss or two from beyond the 3-point line.

Those are all numbers you take from Golden State’s core guys — and numbers that we have seen — in countless Warriors’ victories. In addition, the Warriors dominated the glass, 51-38, and didn’t turn the ball over a crazy  amount (14). They finished shooting 46 percent from the field and 36 percent from 3-point range.

So, why did they lose? It’s easy to say the officiating and the free-throw disparity, but let’s go a little deeper, shall we? My first thought was that as good as each Warrior played, the guy he covered may have played, in general, just a little bit better. But I’m going to leave it there.

In order to go a little deeper, gonna have to sleep on it, watch the tape and give it a minute.

Hey, I didn’t say I knew why Warriors lost, I just said I was gonna tell you what I was thinking in wake of it. In meantime, feel free to tell me why you think Warriors lost tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

About Steinmetz

Matt Steinmetz is a veteran San Francisco Bay Area sports journalist. He covered the Golden State Warriors for the Bay Area News Group for more than a decade before becoming a television analyst with Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. Steinmetz can be heard on "Steiny & Guru" on 95.7-FM The Game in San Francisco, from 12-3.
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1 Response to Warriors have never played better in a loss this season

  1. T0gi (@T0gi) says:

    I just finished watching this terrific game.
    I think the Warriors lost because they had few holes in defense. I mean, everybody did a great job (except David Lee), but you can’t relax for a second against an offense like this. For example, Klay did in the 4th : Korever made a big 3, which was kind of the dagger.
    The Hawks bench was crazy in the second half. Look at Mike Scott : he made some great open 3s, scored at the post… He had a day when everything was going in the right way.

    Like

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