© Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
That was ugly. This was supposed to be the night that Chase Center got its first taste of quasi playoff basketball and the Warriors punched their ticket to the actual playoffs. They did not; their season ends with a 117-112 loss to the upstart Memphis Grizzlies.
These teams have seen plenty of each other, and twice in the past three games. Golden State just looked completely out of sorts from the outset, and totally unable to deal with the relentless effort and pressure they faced from Memphis.
We saw much of what we saw on that final day of the regular season, but with much more sloppiness from a Warriors team that, understandably, looked gassed from their Wednesday night matchup with the Lakers. The Grizzlies also had a Wednesday night matchup with the Spurs to get into another one-off, but lean much more on youth than Golden State.
Curry, who was stellar, with 39 points (13-of-28, 6-of-15 from three) but inefficient from deep, was once again hounded by Dillon Brooks, just as he was on Sunday. But unlike in that season finale, Brooks didn’t foul out in the fourth quarter (which he did with more than six minutes remaining).
And whereas Ja Morant, who shot 30 percent from three in the regular season, was left to his own devices, to happily miss from behind the arc in the final game of the season (16 points on 7-of-21, 1-of-6 from three), he was unbelievable on Friday, going 5-of-10 from three. Morant was nigh unstoppable in this one, finishing with 35 points (14-of-29), 6 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals.
It really felt like Curry became exhausted from the insane defensive attention he receives and two back-to-back games playing more than 40 minutes. Draymond Green, too, looked a little off (of course, he did have an 11-point, 16-rebound, 10-assist triple double with a steal and a block), and both of them could not stop turning the ball over. They had a combined 13 turnovers of the Warriors’ 21.
It was the Grizzlies’ supporting cast, with players like Brooks, Kyle Anderson and Xavier Tillman, who harassed the Warriors to no end, who forced those errors.
If the Warriors are eliminated tonight, pretty obvious which stat to highlight: 38 turnovers in two play-in games, 25 of them from Draymond Green and Steph Curry.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) May 22, 2021
But what’s astounding is that if the Warriors had just kept pace with Memphis from three, all those turnovers would have been rendered moot.
Both teams took 35 threes. Memphis made 15. The Warriors made 12.
And down the stretch, Curry didn’t get much help until very late in the fourth. With less than four minutes left and the Warriors down 10, he found a cutting Draymond Green on back-to-back possessions. Then Jordan Poole got fouled (albeit questionably) on a three, and hit all of them.
And to tie it up with just over a minute remaining, Curry drove down the lane for a reverse attempt, drawing a foul from Jonas Valanciunas, and fouling him out with his sixth of the game. After a pair of Kyle Anderson free throws, Andrew Wiggins finished a game-tying alley-oop layup off of some slick passing from Jordan Poole. That tied the game at 99, and after a pair of misses on either side, sent us to overtime.
But it was meant to be for Memphis. Xavier Tillman, one of those key role players, hit a crucial late three, and Morant came through in the clutch with a pair of back-to-back floaters to win the game. The Warriors, for their part, stumbled and turned the ball over a couple of times. It was a brutal end to a mess of a season.