This one looked like the past three games for the Warriors — up until the third quarter, that is. The Warriors didn’t have any of their usual after-halftime magic on Monday in Miami, and the result was an unexpected 105-102 loss to the Heat.
In the past three games, Golden State has been spectacular in the third quarter, outscoring their opponents in a big way on their way to easy victories. But the Heat stayed deliberate and locked in, and not only did Miami hang around, it went up 98-88 with four minutes remaining.
The Warriors stormed back and drew even on Kevin Durant’s dunk with 11.7 seconds left, but that just set up Dion Waiters’ game-winning 3-pointer over Klay Thompson with six-tenths of a second left for the victory.
Link to “Warriors WrapUp,” the postgame show on 95.7-FM The Game.
Waiters finished with a career-high tying 33 points on 13-for-20 from the field. In Wednesday’s win over Oklahoma City, the Warriors outscored the Thunder 37-22 in the third quarter on their way to a 121-100 win. On Friday, the Warriors outscored the Rockets 37-22 in the third quarter on their way to a 126-91 win over Houston. And on Sunday, Golden State outscored Orlando 42-24 in the third quarter, winning 118-98.
In the upset within the upset, the Warriors shot just 8-for-30 from beyond the arc (26.7 percent). Miami went 13-for-30 from 3-point range (43.3 percent). The loss snaps the Warriors’ seven-game winning streak.
Despite the loss that drops the Warriors to 38-7, coach Steve Kerr is back as the coach of the Western Conference All-Star team. It’s his second time in the past three years coaching that team.
