The Warriors failed to replicate the effort from the opening two games of their road trip and will return home with a sour taste in their mouths after a bad loss to the Jazz.
Golden State stunned the Rockets to open its road trip and took the Thunder to the wire on Saturday but fell 119-116 on Monday toa tanking Utah teammissing its top players.
Already playing without Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jusuf Nurkic, the Jazz subbed out their remaining leading scorer, Keyonte George, for good at the end of the third quarter. They sent their high scorer for the game, Brice Sensabaugh (21 points), to the bench for the final 4:48.
Draymond Greenmissed a free throw that would have put the Warriors up 114-113 with 86 seconds remaining. Eight Warriors scored in double figures, led by De’Anthony Melton with 22 points, but they made just 14 of their 21 attempts from the free-throw line.
Brandin Podziemski also missed a pair of late free throws and finished 0-for-4 at the line. The Warriors’ struggles at the foul line arguably cost them a second consecutive game after they shot just 11-for-18 (61.1%) against the Thunder.
The Jazz got to the foul line 29 times and sank 27 of them. Kyle Filipowski sank all six of his attempts on his way to a double-double with 19 points and 15 rebounds.
The Warriors couldn’t have expected to return home any better than 1-2 when they hit the road without Steph Curry and a handful of their rotation regulars.
It’s not the path anyone expected, but it’s the same result nevertheless.
Still, the Warriors will be kicking themselves for letting this one slip away.
Kevin Love pump-faked Malevy Leons into the air and somehow sank a circus-style 3-pointer through contact, then completed the four-point play to open up the first double-digit lead of the game late in the third quarter. The play was part of a 12-1 run that put the Jazz up 89-78.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
