The lone silver lining to come from the Golden State Warriors bite-sized road trip is this: it’s over. Two days after losing by 10 to a Milwaukee Bucks team that was playing with Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Dubs stumbled late in the fourth quarter and loss to a woefully shorthanded Indiana Pacers team in search of their first win of the season.
Indy was without Tyrese Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin, T.J. McConnell, Andrew Nembhard, and Obi Toppin, but it stopped neither their confidence nor their energy.
The Dubs matched that energy early, as the teams went back-and-forth in an entertaining, fast-paced first quarter. Jonathan Kuminga once again opened the game strong, as did Jimmy Butler III, while Steph Curry calmly dropped in 10 points in the frame as the team built up a lead. But once again, the offense went cold late in the quarter, and Pascal Siakam topped off a 10-point, 5-for-5 quarter with a circus shot near the buzzer, as the Pacers trailed just 32-28.
Siakam picked up where he left off in the second quarter, and was dominating the Dubs on both ends of the court. The Warriors seemed bothered by Indiana’s length and active hands, but eventually started to figure things out. A pair of buckets by Brandin Podziemski, followed by a Draymond Green triple, pushed the lead to seven points, and that ballooned to nine at the 3:30 mark. But the Pacers, led by a sensation showing from Aaron Nesmith, came roaring back with a big run. At halftime, the Warriors led 58-53, with Curry and Nesmith both sitting on 18-point halves, and Siakam not far behind with 16.
Indy came out firing in the third quarter, and quickly took the lead, with Nesmith still torching the Warriors. The teams exchanged blows for a while, with Kuminga showing off his highlight chops with multiple drives and dunks. Steve Kerr, seeking energy and length to match the Pacers, turned to Gui Santos for the first time, and the Brazilian provided some big moments. But the Warriors were suddenly playing from a deficit, as they trailed by six points at the halfway mark, and had taken all of their starters, save for Podziemski, out of the game.
But Podziemski put on his cape late in the quarter, as did Butler when he checked back in. As he tends to do, Butler ended the quarter by dominating a two-for-one, which gave the Warriors an 88-82 lead heading into the fourth. They entered the final frame on a 17-5 run, having regained all of the momentum.
They briefly kept it going. Quinten Post drained a three to make it a 10-point lead with nine minutes remaining, and it felt like the Dubs might be in control. But the Pacers kept pushing and kept threatening, even though the Warriors seemingly always had an answer. Finally, the Pacers figured something out. After Siakam and Nesmith had dominated, it was time for a new player to take the reins: third-year guard Quenton Jackson, who went into superstar mode in the fourth quarter.
Still, the Warriors were clinging to the lead. The Pacers cut it to two points with 3:30 remaining, but the Warriors held. They cut it to one point with 2:30 remaining, but Curry answer with a layup. They again cut it to one point with 1:43 left, and that’s when the game shifted. Curry missed a floater on one end, and after Kuminga held Siakam to a difficult jumper that he missed, the Pacers got the offensive rebound and Jackson drained a triple to give the Pacers the lead.
Butler would answer and tie the game, but Siakam had the final laugh, draining a three with 35.3 seconds remaining to break the tie. The Warriors tried a two-for-one of their own, but failed to execute, with Kuminga missing a corner three, and then Jackson scoring a nail-in-the-coffin bucket with about five seconds remaining.
Indiana ended the game on a 21-5 run, which gave them a 114-109 win, and sent the Dubs back to the Bay Area on what one can imagine will be a very long, very quiet flight.
