Steph Curry has gone cold. The Warriors followed in their star’s footsteps Wednesday night in Dallas, turning in their worst offensive performance of the season.
Golden State missed on 23 of its 28 attempts from 3 in a 99-82 loss to the Mavericks, its worst clip of the season. The Warriors held Dallas to 37% from the field but were done in by their own shooting struggles. Dallas put the game on ice with a 20-5 run to end the fourth quarter.
“I thought we kind of ran out of gas in the fourth quarter,” coach Steve Kerr said afterward.
The Warriors managed only 39 first-half points – three shy of a season-low – but were able to erase an initial 14-point deficit. A few minutes into the fourth quarter, they had nearly matched their total for the first half. Then the offense went silent again.
Golden State was able to climb out of one hole but not two.
Curry finished a reverse layup with 8:19 to go that pulled the Warriors within a point, 76-75. Those were the Curry’s last of 14 points and Golden State’s final points until a Wiggins layup with 3:50 to go and the Warriors back in a double-digit hole, a scoreless stretch that last for 4 minutes, 29 seconds. Wiggins’ two layups were the Warriors’ only baskets between Curry’s at the 8:19 mark and one in garbage time from Quinndary Weatherspoon.
It’s possible that Curry doesn’t play Thursday at New Orleans after suffering a quad contusion against Dallas, Kerr said. Curry said he wasn’t optimistic about his chance to play.
The Warriors’ two worst offensive showing have come in their past four games after scoring 86 last week against Denver. In between, however, they turned in back-to-back games of 39 assists, the first NBA team to do so since 1994. On Wednesday, they managed 20 assists but with 33 makes on 81 shots (40.7%) were offered fewer opportunities.
Curry missed 19 of his 24 attempts from the field and all but one his nine from beyond the 3-point line, extending a cold snap that ranks among the worst of his career. Curry had been limited to 37.9% shooting over his past 15 games entering Wednesday; he’s missed 33 of the last 41 shots he’s taken, the worst two-game shooting stretch of his career. With 14 points Wednesday to follow up a season-low nine on Monday, the Warriors have gotten fewer points from their leading scorer than any other two-game stretch of the season.
“Everyone is throwing everything at him,” Kerr said. “I think tonight he pressed a little bit.”
Even during the coldest stretch of his career, Curry’s mere presence impacts the game. He drew the attention of his defenders, then screened them, for a wide-open 3-pointer from Wiggins that pulled the Warriors within two, 56-54, early in the third quarter.
Wiggins found Curry, who delivered two buckets in the next 48 seconds that helped the Warriors climb out of a 14-point deficit. Golden State mounted a 16-0 run that flipped the game coming out of the locker room and set the stage for a battle in the second half.
While Curry is working through his shot, the Warriors haven’t been totally devoid of deadly 3-point threats: Wiggins, who was the only Golden State player with multiple 3s (2-of-5), entered Wednesday leading the NBA over his past 15 games with a 53.6% hit rate from distance.
Nothing was falling on Wednesday, though: the Warriors made their fewest 3-pointers of the season at their least efficient clip. They previously were held to eight 3s at Indiana and a 23.1% success rate at Charlotte. The final tally Wednesday: 5-for-28 (17.9%).
With Klay Thompson inching closer to his return to the court, Golden State will have one more long-range sharpshooter in its arsenal. Anticipating Thompson’s arrival, Jordan Poole slid into a reserve role for the third straight game, but it was tough to match his performance that alleviated Curry’s unusually cold night Monday.
Poole dropped 32 against Miami while connecting on 12 of his 17 attempts off the bench to help hold off a scrappy Heat squad. Against Dallas, the Warriors were left searching for alternate options to Wiggins (17 points; 7-of-13) and Curry (14 points; 5-of-24).
Gary Payton II, who started in place of Poole, recorded a double double – the third of his career – with 11 points and a season-high 11 rebounds. It took Payton five tries to make five baskets, whereas Curry’s fifth shot didn’t fall until his 22nd attempt.
Source: www.mercurynews.com