The Warriors’ 128-119 overtime loss to the Memphis Grizzlies was a shocker, no doubt. Golden State led by 24 points in the third quarter and entered the fourth quarter up 19. But from there it was all bad, with the offense bogging down in a confounding way and the defense going awfully soft.
It all added up to head-scratching collapse, and one that is likely to stick with the team and fans for longer than most regular, old losses. Of course, the Warriors don’t lose much. They’re still 31-6 heading into Sunday’s game at Sacramento, and that’s the best in the NBA. But when you’re the Warriors and expectations are what they are (championship or bust) then losses bring out more dissection. If you want to listen to the postgame show, link provided below.
Link to “Warriors WrapUp,” the postgame show on 95.7-FM The Game.
–Compared with most NBA teams, the Warriors don’t have a lot of weaknesses, but whatever ones they do have were exposed against the Grizzlies. The glaring issue, it seemed, was the Warriors’ lack of physicality. We all know Memphis is a rough and tumble team — both on the interior and perimeter — but they just seemed to manhandle the Warriors last night.
Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, Tony Allen … those guys are tough.
For all his strengths as an offensive player, and his ability to block shots at the defensive end, Kevin Durant struggles against good post-up players. And Randolph is a very good post up player — still. Durant might be a way better all-around player than Harrison Barnes, but when it comes to defending power forwards playing with their backs to the basket, Barnes does it better than Durant. And it showed last night.
Matt Steinmetz 