SAN FRANCISCO – The issue most responsible for the Warriors’ midseason mediocrity, patched masterfully for two months after the arrival of Jimmy Butler III, sustained its first tear Wednesday night.
For the first time since Butler arrived, the Warriors fumbled a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter when San Antonio’s Harrison Barnes drained a game-winning 3-pointer that sent the Warriors trudging into the locker room with a 114-111 loss to the Spurs that could haunt them the rest of the season.
The loss, the Warriors’ second in three games, dropped them from sixth place to seventh in the Western Conference standings with a 47-33 record. They are squarely in the pit they hoped to avoid: NBA play-in tournament quicksand.
“We know where we at,” Stephen Curry said. “We know that every game is important. It’s been important about the last two weeks, and we’ve done a lot to give ourselves a chance to climb pretty high considering where we were before trade deadline. And [losing] these last two home games sucks, like for different reasons.”
It quickly became apparent that another obstacle to victory that Butler had nullified suddenly resurfaced. When Curry sat, leads evaporated. It happened in the second quarter, when a nine-point lead disappeared in three minutes. It happened again in the fourth, when that 12-point lead was trimmed to four in less than three minutes.
“Couldn’t get a stop,” Draymond Green said. “Couldn’t get into nothing good offensively, couldn’t get a stop.”
Curry sat for six minutes in the first half and five minutes in the second half, and San Antonio was plus-16 over those 11 minutes.
“That was key to the game, top of the second, top of the fourth,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We played two great quarters, first quarter and third quarter. And then both of those quarters, top second, top four, they blitzed us.”
The Spurs in the fourth quarter torched Golden State’s defense for 38 points, on 72.2-percent shooting from the field, including 70 percent beyond the arc. Three turnovers in the final 2:11 gave San Antonio enough opportunity to close it out.
“It didn’t happen in the fourth quarter,” said Green, who committed two of the late turnovers. “It happened in the second quarter. End of the first quarter, second quarter we just started giving up straight-line drives. They found a rhythm; that’s what happened. We found a way to get the lead back but we never … don’t mess around with games.”
Curry finished with a game-high 30 points, with Butler right behind him with 28 points – his highest total as a Warrior – with 13 coming in the fourth quarter. Golden State’s offense was satisfactory enough, but its defense did not hold up.
This was a particularly painful setback, as it came against a 13th-place Spurs team relegated to playing spoiler after losing eight of its last nine games. Moreover, the Warriors took a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter before being clobbered 38-23 over the final 12 minutes.
The last time the Warriors kicked away a similar lead was on Feb. 5 – three days before Butler’s debut – when they lost an 11-point lead to the Jazz in less than three minutes in Utah. Both losses can be attributed to Golden State’s defensive shortcomings.
Mind you, the Warriors have been the league’s best defense since Butler came aboard.
“When you’re up 12 on to the fourth, your defense is really going to be the difference in maintaining that separation,” Curry said. “Who cares if you make or miss shots? You just can’t give a team life and give up 38 points.”
The Warriors still can lock up a top-six seed in the West by winning their final two games. If Minnesota wins at Memphis on Thursday, the Warriors move back into sixth place. If the Grizzlies win, Golden State is one game back of Memphis but holding the head-to-head tiebreaker.
The Grizzlies then go to Denver to face the Nuggets on Friday on Part II of a back-to-back set.
Beating the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday and the Los Angeles Clippers would allow the Warriors to finish the season at 49-33. They would finish ahead of the Timberwolves, who already have 34 losses, and they would jump Memphis if its drops one of its last three games.
The Warriors no longer have full control of their destiny. They put themselves right where they don’t want to be, hoping someone above them tumbles back below.
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