The Warriors have been outrebounded and outshot from three-point range in all but one of their defeats this season, and that trend continued with a heartbreaking 105-102 loss in Miami on Monday. Golden State battled all the way back from a double-digit fourth quarter deficit to tie the game in the final minute, but Dion Waiters capped a career-best night with a game-winning three-pointer for the Heat in the final second to steal the victory. Kevin Durant led the Warriors with 27 points, while Stephen Curry narrowly missed a triple-double with 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists. The loss brings an end to the Warriors’ seven-game winning streak, and drops their record to 38-7 on the season.
GAME LEADERS
Golden State may have been playing its second game in as many days, but that didn’t prevent Stephen Curry from being engaged from the tip.
Curry would score the Warriors first and final baskets of the opening quarter, getting the Dubs on the board with a three-pointer 98 seconds into the contest.
The Heat made three of their first four three-point attempts and utilized a 7-0 run to take a 24-15 lead with 3:39 remaining in the first frame. Curry soon after assisted on back-to-back dunks by JaVale McGee and Kevin Durant to ignite an 11-0 run to close the quarter.
He single-handedly scored the final five points of that surge to end the frame, and the final two came in spectacular fashion.
After draining another three-pointer with 27 second left to play, Curry drove the lane and banked in a shot high of the glass as the quarter buzzer expired, putting Golden State in front 30-28 at the end of one.
Curry wouldn’t score in the second quarter, but the Warriors would maintain the same two-point advantage going into the half. The two sides combined to shoot just 1-of-19 from three-point range in the quarter, with Goran Dragic providing the only make to tie the score at 36 with 8:17 remaining. Outside of back-to-back layups by Rodney McGruder and Dion Waiters followed by consecutive scores by Klay Thompson and Zaza Pachulia in immediate response, the teams would trade scores for the remainder of the quarter. Durant’s jumper with 1:15 remaining would break the sixth and final deadlock of the frame and give Golden State a 48-46 lead going into halftime.
It would remain a tight game throughout the second half, with neither side able to generate more than as single basket advantage until a 7-0 Golden State burst capped by two Pachulia free throws put the Warriors in front 69-63 with 4:33 left in the third frame. The Heat would respond with a 10-2 run in the ensuing two minutes to jump back in front, and they’d go on to hold a 77-73 leading going into the fourth and final quarter. The Dubs made just one of their 15 three-point attempts spanning the second and third periods.
After Wayne Ellington’s jumper opened the fourth quarter scoring, Klay Thompson and Patrick McCaw sank back-to-back three-pointers as part of an 8-0 Warriors’ run to jump back in front, but it would only be temporary. Goran Dragic would tie it back up with two free throws on the next possession, and Miami would go on to take the first double-digit advantage of the entire game at 96-86 with 4:58 left to play. But, just as it looked as if the Heat might run away with the game, the Warriors began to claw their way back.
After the two sides alternated scores, Golden State would account for the next eight points of the contest, pulling within 98-96 on Durant’s first three-pointer of the night with 1:54 remaining in the game. Dion Waiters halted the Warriors’ momentum with a clutch three-pointer, but back-to-back scores from Durant and Shaun Livingston would cut the deficit to 101-100 with 21 seconds left. Four seconds later, the Warriors fouled Dragic, who missed the first resulting free throw attempt before making the second. Coming out of a timeout, Durant eventually received the ball on the wing and drove the baseline to tie the game at 102 with a two-handed dunk with 11 seconds remaining in regulation. The heroics, however, would belong to Waiters, whose three-pointer over Thompson fell through the net with just 0.6 seconds left on the clock. After advancing the ball, Curry received the inbound in the corner, but his last-second three-point attempt did not draw iron.
The loss is the Warriors’ seventh of the season. They’ve been outrebounded in all of those games and outshot from three-point range in six, a pattern they’ll hope to avoid when the finish off their road trip in Charlotte on Wednesday.