After suffering yet another injury to an All-Star, the Warriors ultimately ran out of gas in an 89-75 road loss to the Spurs on Monday night. Golden State erased a 16-point deficit and took their first lead of the night at the end of the third quarter, but struggled to get anything going offensively in the final frame. Quinn Cook led the Warriors with 20 points and five assists, notching his third-straight 20-point game. Kevon Looney accounted for 12 points and eight rebounds, scoring in double figures in consecutive games for the first time in his career, while Andre Iguodala and Nick Young added 10 points apiece. With the loss, Golden State drops to 53-18 on the season.
TEAM LEADERS
CAN'T CATCH A BREAK
The Warriors entered Monday’s game with a roster missing numerous significant pieces. Unfortunately for Golden State, they added to that total before the end of the night.
The Dubs were already without Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson for the third-straight game, meaning Draymond Green represented Golden State’s lone remaining All-Star active for the contest. Green himself had recently missed a game due to shoulder soreness, and the reigning Defensive Player of the Year suffered a pelvic contusion in the first half on Monday night that forced him from the game. Although x-rays were negative, Green did not return.
RESILIENCY
Given their injury luck, it would have been easy for the Warriors to throw in the towel on multiple occasions on Monday night, but they never did.
Golden State trailed by 14 points midway through the first quarter, but immediately responded with a 14-3 run to get right back in it. Then, after San Antonio had taken a 16-point lead midway through the second, the Dubs reeled of a 13-3 burst to make a game of it going into halftime.
The Warriors never led at any point in the game until the very end of the third quarter, when Kevon Looney’s jumper with 2.8 seconds left put Golden State in front 63-61. After allowing the Spurs to score 30 points in the first quarter, the Warriors limited San Antonio to just 30 points combined over the next two frames.
MISSED OPPORTUNITY
Golden State had won each of the three prior meetings between the Warriors and Spurs this season, so Monday’s game represented an opportunity for a regular season sweep – an extreme rarity in Warriors’ franchise history. Since 1976-77, only once have the Warriors swept the Spurs during the regular season, in 1996-97, 4-0. After Monday’s game, San Antonio and Denver remain the only two NBA teams the Warriors have not swept in a regular season in the Steve Kerr era.
DEJA VU
Without the aid of their four All-Stars, the Dubs struggled offensively on Monday, totaling a season-low 75 points in the loss. It represented the fewest points the Warriors had scored in a game since falling 87-79 in San Antonio exactly two years ago on March 19, 2016.
UP NEXT
After a 1-1 road trip, Golden State will return to the Bay Area for a four-game homestand that begins with a matchup against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday night. FIND TICKETS