SAN FRANCISCO — Hardly anyone has been able to keep up with the league’s best offense this year, so at least the Warriors can say they aren’t alone.
Against the Cavaliers, who have a league-best 28-4 record, nothing worked on offense for Golden State. The Warriors missed a myriad of layups, shot 23.7% from behind the 3-point arc and committed 15 turnovers. Steph Curry scored 11 points on 4-for-14 shooting and Dennis Schroder, Buddy Hield and Draymond Green combined to shoot 6-for-29 overall.
Cleveland’s size, creative schemes to shut down Curry and athletic wings suffocated the Warriors all night, but never more so than in the second quarter. They scored 11 points in the frame — a season-low for any period — on 4-for-23 shooting (0-for-8 from deep).
“They’ve been a tough matchup for us the last few years,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “They kind of remind me of our team when I first got here. They’ve been together now for a while and the continuity is obvious. It feels like a team that’s really well connected. There’s a reason they’re 28-4.”
Trayce Jackson-Davis (16 points, career-high 16 rebounds) played well, but the Warriors got exposed for their scarcity of shot creators and play finishers in a 113-95 loss. Chase Center emptied out with five minutes remaining. Golden State (16-16) lost 13 of their last 17 games of 2024.
In this blowout, the Warriors shot a season-low 33.3% from the field. Over the past two weeks, they rank last in offensive rating.
“I think at one point it was more unorganized, execution, lack of clarity on what we’re trying to do,” Curry said postgame. “And I think whether it’s confidence, whether it’s shots not going in, whatever it is, it’s affecting our ability to sustain our level of competitiveness. Myself included. We have to be able to channel positive energy.”
Even while contending with dueling bigs Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen, the Warriors generated second chances with effort on the glass. Jackson-Davis particularly made an impact, grabbing seven boards in his first six minutes — including four offensive rebounds.
Jackson-Davis has come on strong to finish 2024, with six straight double-digit scoring games to close the calendar year. He grabbed 10 offensive rebounds but went 6-for-14 from the field, taking all his shots in the paint in Cleveland’s trees.
“He’s kind of indicative of our entire team: we’re playing with a lot of effort,” Curry said. “Tonight, he missed a lot of bunnies, but he was flying around, trying to block shots, offensive rebounds, playing big in the post. That’s all you can really ask. He’s learning how to be a presence on both ends of the floor.”
Despite attempting five more field goals and turning the Cavs over six times in the first quarter, the Warriors only led by one point after 12 minutes. It was Cleveland’s first time trailing after the first quarter in over a month.
Cleveland ranks first in the league offensive rating and ninth on defense. With Allen and Mobley in the paint and Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland attacking from the backcourt, the Cavaliers have been the story of the first half of the season.
But the Warriors grinded them to a halt in the second quarter.
Before former Warrior Ty Jerome sank a pair of 3-pointers, the Cavaliers went 0-for-7 from the floor and committed four turnovers. But the Warriors didn’t capitalize at all, going cold as well.
Each team traded turnover after turnover to start the second quarter. The score froze at 27-26 for the first 2:24 of the frame. The first made field goal of the quarter came on an Andrew Wiggins flip shot 4:30 minutes into the period. The teams combined to miss 12 straight shots.
Cleveland’s size gave the Warriors all sorts of problems. They missed several layups and clanked all eight of their 3-point tries.
Curry and Green spent the last several minutes of the half at the scorer’s table waiting to check in, but there were no stoppages — only bricks, turnovers and a bucket at the rim sprinkled in here and there. Green and Curry finally returned with 38 seconds left, after their normal rotation pattern got spiked by the game’s sloppiness.
“We just couldn’t get out of that rut in the second quarter, kind of lost our mojo,” Kerr said.
The half ended, fittingly, with an air-balled 3. The teams combined to shoot 12-for-45 (27%) from the field in the second quarter, with the Cavs winning the period 20-11. At halftime, each had committed double-digit turnovers.
The Warriors’ defense kept them in it, but then Cleveland drained four straight 3s for 12 unanswered points. Donovan Mitchell, who scored 23 points, accounted for three of them in what Kerr called the “key stretch” of the game. Their lead ballooned to 17 in 150 seconds. Suddenly, Cleveland looked like the league’s best offense again.
Down 23 points, Green leaked out all alone on a fast break after yet another Cleveland bucket. He missed the layup, then the tip, then another try with his right hand.
The game was already practically over before that folly. But if there was ever a sign that it’s not your night, there it was.
“As the kids say, we’re very mid right now,” Curry said.
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