On Sunday night, the Golden State Warriors blew their chance at their first four-game winning streak of the season, and they did so in frustratingly familiar style: by falling apart late in the game, blowing a double-digit fourth-quarter lead en route to an overtime loss to the Toronto Raptors.
They had no time to dwell on defeat, as they were stuck in the dreaded road back-to-back. And they had no time to overthink their late-game execution, as on Monday night they once again found themselves with
a slim lead to protect in the fourth quarter, this time against the Brooklyn Nets.
Only this time they passed the test. There would be no late-game meltdown. There would be no failure to execute. Instead, they refreshingly figured out how to play some of their best basketball late, as they defeated the red-hot Nets 120-107.
It didn’t start out very pretty, though. Though the Warriors looked decent in the opening minutes, things went south quickly. Their offense stuttered and briefly died, while Brooklyn — shooting lights-out from deep — rattled off a 12-0 run to take a double-digit lead. There was a noticeable difference in the teams: the Warriors couldn’t get anything easy on offense, with everything a slog and a struggle, while the Nets looked far more aggressive and stunningly more athletic.
After the Warriors started to make things interesting again, the Nets had a second unanswered run in them, as they scored 10 straight near the end of the frame … though that was retroactively broken up when Steph Curry was awarded a basket (his first of the night) on an official review of a bucket that had initially been deemed after the shot clock.
Finally, late in the quarter, the Warriors — driven by excellence on both ends of the court courtesy of Jimmy Butler III — found their rhythm. Behind Butler and Trayce Jackson-Davis (who had an exceptional game), the Warriors pulled to within two points at the end of the quarter, and trailed just 30-28.
They immediately tied it up in the second quarter, and it felt like it stayed that way for the entirety of the frame. It felt like no team ever led by more than one point, as the pace of the game sped up and reached a delightfully chaotic level. Jackson-Davis continued his excellent game, while rookie Will Richard had huge minutes. When the halftime buzzer rang, the Warriors held a slim 59-57 advantage, in a game where the lead had changed hands a whopping 13 times in 24 minutes.
Despite the lead, Steve Kerr opted for a new look out of the break, with Brandin Podziemski starting in place of Quinten Post in the second half. It was an understandable shift, as the Warriors needed speed to keep up with Brooklyn, and Post had struggled in the first half.
But neither team could find traction early in the third quarter, as both teams found that there were lids on the rims. For a brief moment it felt like the Dubs were losing momentum, but then they blitzed a 10-2 run on the Nets, turning a five-point deficit into a three-point lead. That, unfortunately, was followed by sloppiness as the Dubs got out of control, but Butler — as he so often does, particularly in odd-numbered quarters — was there to save the day. Butler scored the final 11 points of the quarter for Golden State, stabilized the game, and gave the Dubs an 89-85 lead heading into the final frame.
That, of course, is when everyone who roots for the Warriors got nervous, because we’ve seen that show one too many times. But there would be no repeat showing tonight. The Warriors used an early 8-0 run to take a nine-point lead, but Brooklyn answered. Then it was Richard — with energy befitting his age, but poise far surpassing it — led another Warriors surge. Suddenly the Warriors were up 12 — their biggest lead of the night to that point — with under five minutes remaining.
But, just to make sure you got a proper scare, the Nets had a run, and scored the next eight points in the blink of an eye. Golden State’s lead was down to four, and it was officially nervous time.
And then came the defining play of the game. Curry, who had on multiple occasions in the second half felt contact, thrown up a shot, made it, and had the basket wiped away with the foul being called on the floor, finally got the whistle to go his way, tossing up a spectacular shot through contact, swishing it through the net while earning a trip to the line.
It was vindication, though it didn’t last long. Rookie Egor Dëmin answered with his seventh three of the night — a career best — pulling the Nets back to within four. But Richard found a cutting Draymond Green on the other end, and Green, after being hacked, made both free throws. With a victory — or a collapse — within reach, the Warriors found their best execution of the night. De’Anthony Melton blocked a Dëmin three, and turned it into a transition layup, then Richard bullied a steal, and turned it into a transition dunk. All that was left was to dress the windows, and even the Warriors did that better than the Nets, pushing the lead up to 13 as the buzzer rang, and securing a much-needed late-game win.
