SAN FRANCISCO – Even in the face of their otherwise excellent start, the Warriors on Monday night endured the same lesson they’ve been enduring so often this season.
Can’t say they’ve learned that lesson, as failures still are too frequent.
The recipe to Golden State’s 128-120 loss to the Brooklyn Nets included one part of their typically poor free-throw shooting, one part unusually indifferent defense and – what surely is the most maddening – four parts of voluntary charity.
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The surest way to compromise any defense is by giving the opponent live-ball turnovers.
“It’s impossible to defend it,” said Stephen Curry, who committed three turnovers. “And that can decide a game. We won the possession game, got 10 more shots than they did. Almost the same amount of threes (19 to Brooklyn’s 20). They got 15 more free-throw makes. But that 14 points on easy buckets or easy possessions, whether it’s them knocking down transition threes or getting to the basket, there’s no defense for it.”
The Warriors handed out 13 turnovers, not a horrible number. What was damaging is that those turnovers gave Brooklyn 26 points and essentially paved a path to Golden State’s first back-to-back defeats this season – both of which came after coughing up large third-quarter leads.
They led by 17 inside the final two minutes of the third quarter at San Antonio on Saturday and lost by 10.
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They led by 18 with less than seven minutes remaining in the third quarter Monday and lost by eight before a sellout crowd (18,064) at Chase Center. The Nets began their surge over those final seven minutes and continued until the final buzzer. They outscored the Warriors 60-34 over the final 19 minutes.
“We’ve generally done a better job of taking care of the ball, for the most part,” coach Steve Kerr said. “Thirteen turnovers [are] not a bad number, but they scored every time off them. There were some bad ones that really hurt; they were kind of automatic conversations. The ones that we had really took our momentum away, so we’ve just got to keep getting better.”
The Warriors are averaging 14.6 turnovers per game, roughly the same as last season (14.3). The league has changed such that they were 23rd in turnovers last season yet have climbed to 15th-best this season.
This is, however, the fifth game this season in which their donations have given opponents at least 20 points.
The Nets scored 10 points off turnovers in the third quarter, which they closed with a 21-6 run. Much of what fueled their comeback can be attributed to Golden State’s live-ball turnovers.
“We can’t set up our defense,” Gary Payton II explained. “At that point, we’re scrambling around. And if we’re scrambling, somebody is going to be open at some point and they get a good look. And teams are hitting them.
“If we take away the live turnovers and get back on defense, I’d like our chances with our set defense.”
By the time the Warriors reduced their live-ball turnovers, the energy had gone to the Nets, who scored five more gift points while finishing the Warriors in the fourth quarter.
Brooklyn after halftime shot 56.1 percent from the field, including 45.5 percent from distance.
That’s successive games in which the Warriors staggered toward the finish.
The Warriors sit in second place in the Western Conference. They have an impressive 12-5 record. Yet even with their revamped roster, they’re displaying disturbing shades of last season, which ended with them trudging into an offseason without playoffs.
“You don’t want to overreact, right?” Kerr said. “Two games ago, everyone was feeling great. We were 12-3. We’ve had big leads in late third in both games. We have to address what’s happened in these last two games. I don’t think it’s a fatigue thing. I think it’s an execution thing.
“We need to execute better, and that’s on me as the coach,” he added. “We’ll get them in here tomorrow for a practice, which we need, and we’ll get back to executing better. Giving up 41 in the fourth, that’s tough to overcome.”
Practice will, without a doubt, focus on execution. There also will be sufficient time to practice free throws.
Either the Warriors will curb their tendency to give free money to opponents, or their impressive first month will be a distant memory – or a wistful game of “If Only” – when confronting the final weeks of the regular season.