Game Rewind: Pacers 89, Warriors 112

The Pacers dropped their fourth straight game on Thursday night, and will head back to Indianapolis winless over the course of a difficult four-game road trip against Western Conference playoff teams.

While Indiana (44-29) had chances to win late in each of their first three losses, that was not the case on Thursday. The defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors (49-22) cruised to a comfortable victory, 112-89.

Pacers head coach Nate McMillan was not on the sidelines in Oakland due to personal reasons. Longtime assistant Dan Burke served as acting head coach.

"I think we struggled," Burke said after the loss. "You have to give their defense a lot of credit, they have so much flexibility and versatility and that switching is like a stoplight for us. We can’t allow that to happen. We have to move the ball."

The Pacers did an admirable job of holding the Warriors' high-octane under control in the first quarter, forcing the defending champs into five turnovers and limited them to just 1-of-10 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc.

But Indiana struggled on the other end, starting the game 4-for-21 from the field. As a result, the two teams were tied 19-19 after one quarter.

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The Warriors held a narrow lead for much of the second quarter, eventually extending their advantage to as many as nine points before Klay Thompson hit a corner three with 24.1 seconds left in the half to stretch the margin to double digits.

On the other end, Cory Joseph beat the buzzer with a baseline bucket just before the half to make it a 53-43 game at the break.

The Pacers again struggled to score in the opening minutes of the second half. Golden State outscored Indiana 17-5 over the first 6:02 of the third quarter to open up a 22-point lead.

Two-time MVP Stephen Curry drilled two 3-pointers in the final minute of the third to help the hosts extend their lead to 88-62.

"They forced us to take some tough ones," Pacers forward Thaddeus Young said. "Especially when they did some late-clock switching. We were forced to take some contested shots and they didn't go in and then that's what they thrive off of. When you take a bad shot, they either get a leak out or they'll push the break in transition and get some threes."

Most starters from both teams sat out the entire fourth quarter with the outcome well at hand.

Young was the only Pacers starter to reach double figures in the loss, finishing with 18 points on 7-of-13 shooting, seven rebounds, and two steals in 24 minutes of action.

Tyreke Evans led Indiana with 20 points off the bench on 8-of-17 shooting. Rookie Aaron Holiday added 13 points while knocking down all four of his shots (including three from 3-point range), while Doug McDermott added 11 points.

DeMarcus Cousins, back in the starting lineup after missing two games with a sore right ankle, led the Warriors with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting, 11 rebounds, four assists, and two blocks.

Thompson added 18 points, eight rebounds, and four assists, Curry tallied 15 points, four boards, and seven assists, and Kevin Durant finished with 15 points and six dimes.

After returning to Indianapolis, the Pacers will have two days off before returning to action on Sunday evening, when they will host the Denver Nuggets at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.

"Go home, try to regroup," Young said. "Get ourselves together because the games are going to keep coming no matter what."

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Bojan Bogdanovic, the Pacers' leading scorer with All-Star guard Victor Oladipo out for the year, tallied just nine points on 3-of-10 shooting, snapping a 27-game streak of scoring in double figures.

Indiana shot just 38.5 percent from the field and is now 0-8 on the season when held under 40 percent.

The Pacers' two largest deficits of the season have come in their two games against Golden State. The Warriors led by as many as 35 in their 132-100 win at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Jan. 28 and by as many as 34 on Thursday.

Golden State outscored the Pacers 69-43 over the second and third quarters.

Indiana's bench outscored the Warriors' reserves, 53-35.

Golden State won handily despite not having a single player score at least 20 points, the first time that has happened all season.

"I thought our defense in the first quarter, they were making shots, but I thought the energy defensively was good. We forced turnovers and what happens in this league, it seems when you’re not scoring and it's really hard on offense the flood gates and the dam starts cracking and it busted loose." -Burke

"When you play elite teams like this you can't really make many mistakes on either end of the floor and they exploit those mistakes. I think we did a pretty good job of containing them in that first half and then kind of blew it open end of the second quarter and we never recovered." -Pacers center Myles Turner

"It's frustrating, but like I said, as a team we have to stay the course no matter what. Do what's got us to that point. They're a tough team, we all know that." -Young

"We are more engaged and active. Over the last six games or so we have been at our best defensively, so it makes a huge difference." -Warriors head coach Steve Kerr

"Tonight, if we didn't play defense the way we did in that first half, it could've been a much different game because we weren't making shots. A little stagnant on offense. Our defense definitely won us the game tonight and allowed that offensive trigger to be impactful to end the second quarter and start that second half." -Curry

This is first time the Pacers have gone winless over a road trip of four or more games since they were swept over a four-game trip from Nov. 29 - Dec. 5, 2014.

After a four-game road trip, the Pacers will return home to host Nikola Jokic and the Nuggets at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Sunday, March 24 at 5:00 PM ET. Find Tickets »