INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Sitting down at the podium, Draymond Green looked at the box score from the Warriors’ 102-99 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday night at Intuit Dome and muttered two words under his breath: Six turnovers.
That’s how many times he handed the ball over the Clippers in the Warriors’ third loss of this young 2024-25 NBA season. Two of those losses have come against the Clippers, who have forced the Warriors’ offense into a turnover frenzy both times these teams have met.
The Warriors as a team committed 19 turnovers, one fewer than the Clippers, but their many mistakes taking care of the ball equated to 31 points for the opposition. Coach Steve Kerr used 11 players, and eight had at least one turnover. None more than Green’s six.
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“I sucked tonight,” Green said.
When asked to clarify if he meant the team or strictly himself, Green pointed the finger solely at one person.
“I sucked tonight,” he repeated. “Way too many turnovers. Too many missed bodies. Yeah, I just sucked tonight.”
A mere 16 seconds into the game, Green’s errant pass out of bounds marked him down for his first turnover. Green had the ball at the left wing behind, and while being guarded by Derrick Jones Jr., he saw a wide-open Trayce Jackson-Davis come off a screen for an alley-oop opportunity. But Green’s pass was too high, and the Clippers scored their first points of the game on their next possession.
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His second turnover didn’t come until there were 5.1 seconds remaining in the first half when Green was whistled for an offensive foul trying to set a screen for Steph Curry.
Although four of Green’s six turnovers occurred in the second half, he agreed with Kerr’s assessment that the game was lost in the first half when the Warriors had 13 turnovers – two more than their 11 assists – that became 22 points for the Clippers.
“It just set a tone,” Green said. “You hold a team to 102 points and give up 31 points to turnovers … defense was really good, but you can’t defend those turnovers. Like I said, I was awful, so that’s on me.”
Though the Warriors’ sloppy first half dug a hole too big to climb back out of, despite their scrappy efforts, each of Green’s four turnovers in the second half were more costly than the start of the game.
Down by eight points with eight minutes remaining in the third quarter, Green threw a pass right into Norm Powell’s hands, who then dribbled down the court and found Kris Dunn by himself for three in the left corner. The Warriors lucked out since Dunn stepped out of bounds.
They weren’t as lucky with Green's next three turnovers. First, midway through the third quarter in a six-point game, Green’s pass attempt for Curry was snatched by Dunn. Green hustled back on defense but fouled Derrick Jones Jr., who hit both his free throws.
The fourth quarter is when Green’s fifth and sixth turnovers stung the Warriors most.
Only four minutes remained when he flung an alley-oop attempt for Andrew Wiggins that didn’t connect, instead landing in Ivica Zubac’s hands, eventually leading to an Amir Coffey dunk. Of all his turnovers, the backbreaker came at the 2:48 mark. Green tried to force a pass to Curry for a three, but Coffey tipped it and Curry hit it out of bounds trying to save the bad pass. Just 18 seconds later, Powell’s 3-pointer put the Clippers up by 10.
Golden State’s affinity for being too care free with the ball can’t rest on the shoulders of one player. For a newcomer to the Warriors like Buddy Hield, Green taking accountability speaks volumes.
“He’s a winner, man,” Hield told NBC Sports Bay Area. “That’s why we respect what he says and what he does. Even though we don’t think it’s on him, he put it on himself because I know he feels like he can do better.
“Personally, I could have done better. We all could have done better. But that’s the kind of pressure he puts on himself, and I respect him for it.”
The three-loss Warriors now have tallied 40 turnovers in their two losses to the Clippers, which became 51 points for the victors. It’s a decision-making game, and Green will take the blame for a loss the Warriors know was avoidable with smarter choices from the start.