Draymond Green‘s late push for the Defensive Player of the Year award took a beating on Wednesday night when the San Antonio Spurs completed a come-from-behind 114-111 win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday on Harrison Barnes‘ three-pointer at the buzzer.
Spurs forward Keldon Johnson scored against Green twice down the stretch, setting up Barnes’ heroics.
“[We] Couldn’t get a stop,” Green told reporters after the loss. “Couldn’t get into nothing good offensively. Couldn’t get a stop.”
But what’s worse is the Warriors’ playoff push also took a hit. A 3-0 finish could have assured the Warriors of a top-six finish with an automatic playoff berth. After this disastrous loss, they no longer have full control of their destiny even if they win their final two games — against the Portland Trail Blazers on Friday and the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday. Dropping to the play-in tournament is a real possibility now.
“We know what we’re supposed to do,” Green said. “We’re not children. We’re adults. Champions. We know what it takes. No need to beat a dead horse. We messed around with the game and we lost. That’s how it goes.”
Uncharacteristic Loss
The Warriors squandered a 12-point lead at the start of the fourth quarter. This was uncharacteristic, as they entered the game with a 21-1 record at home when entering the fourth quarter with a lead.
“There was a lack of grit,” Green told reporters. “Sometimes it doesn’t take focus. Sometimes it takes grit.”
And they paid dearly for it as the lottery-bound Spurs sprang a surprise.
San Antonio outscored Golden State 38-23 in the final 12 minutes. The Warriors also committed three costly errors inside the final 2:11 — two bad passes from Green and one from Stephen Curry.
Barnes, who was a member of their 2015 championship team and discarded to make way for Kevin Durant, came back to haunt them.
“We couldn’t contain them defensively and when you do that, you leave the door open for shots like they hit, like the one Harrison hit at the end,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters.
Losing the Non-Steph Curry Minutes
The Warriors were outscored by 16 points when Curry was on the bench.
“Huge, I thought that was key to the game — top of the second and top of the fourth [quarter],” Kerr lamented. “We played two great quarters tonight — first quarter and third quarter and then both of those — top second and top fourth — they blitzed us.”
The Spurs went on an 18-3 run at the start of the second quarter. Without Quinten Post, the Warriors’ rookie stretch center, Kerr went with Gui Santos.
The Brazilian forward ended up scoreless and a minus-8 in eight minutes off the bench.
After building a 12-point lead at the end of the third quarter, Kerr tinkered with his second unit, this time fielding Jonathan Kuminga instead of the ineffective Santos. He got a similar result.
A Barnes’ 3-pointer capped a Spurs’ 15-4 run with 8:28 left in the game to cut the Warriors’ lead to 92-91.
“Those were the two key stretches of the game,” Kerr pointed out.
Kuminga finished with 12 points in 18 minutes but he was minus-2. Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody’s poor shooting also exacerbated the situation. Both starters had a 3-of-11 shooting night.
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