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Three takeaways after Warriors lose to Spurs in Bogut’s return

By

Jacob Hutchinson

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© Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

Tonight felt like a flashback to a simpler time. Granted, Andrew Bogut last played with the Warriors in just 2016, but Bogut’s time with the Warriors feels much further removed than the fewer than three years it’s been.

While Bogut played well, the Warriors were plagued by inefficiency tonight, and fell to the Spurs in San Antonio 111-105. Here are three takeaways from tonight’s game:

Bogut is back

With DeMarcus Cousins out, tonight marked the perfect opportunity for Andrew Bogut to make his Warriors part two debut. Bogut has been playing in the Australian National Basketball League for the Sydney Kings with a tremendous stat line on a thinned out frame. In 30 games for the Kings which earned him MVP of the league, Bogut averaged 11.4 points (56 percent shooting), 11.6 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.7 blocks per game on 29.7 minutes per game.

Tonight, Bogut did exactly what the Warriors needed of him, although he was called for an illegal screen on the first possession of the game after winning the tip:

He played in the final minutes of the game and came up with 7 points (3-of-4), 7 rebounds, 1 assist (a beautiful one, below), 1 steal, 1 turnover and 3 personal fouls in 19 minutes. More than anything, he looked athletic and right at home within the Warriors’ system. Here’s a fantastic pass from him to Draymond Green:

And here’s a lob he caught from Stephen Curry for the Warriors’ first points of the game:

Lastly, I’ll leave you this clip of him dunking on the Spurs’ Jakob Poeltl:

“There weren’t no points at all”

I use the above lyric ironically, because every single person who stepped on the court tonight for both the Warriors and Spurs scored a point. In fact, 16 of the 19 players who played tonight scored at least five points, and everyone but Jordan Bell scored at least three.

It was indicative of a game that was defined by good bench play on either side. Rudy Gay, Patty Mills, Marco Belinelli and Davis Bertans combined for 41 points off the bench, and while Bertans and Bellineli only had 5 and 9 points, respectively, they scored huge buckets. Belinelli had a four-point play in the fourth, and Bertans scored the final three of the game, which put it out of reach for the Warriors (despite multiple chances at the end to keep the game in touch).

While the Warriors’ bench wasn’t spectacular, Alfonzo McKinnie notched 8 points and 6 rebounds (2 offensive), and Kevon Looney added 6 points, 3 rebounds (2 offensive), 2 assists and 1 steal. But it wasn’t the Warriors’ bench that was the issue, it was the woeful shooting of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.

Tonight was the opposite of what the San Antonio band Butthole Surfers sang on “Cough Syrup,” which was, “There weren’t no points at all.”

Curry, Thompson miss too many

There were moments in tonight’s game when Curry and Thompson seemed like they were about to turn it on and lead the Warriors on a charge down the stretch. Curry’s 61-foot punctuation mark down the stretch seemed like it could spark something, but didn’t:

Curry and a stretch of 8-straight points on 3-straight possessions, but then couldn’t keep the consistency. Thompson had a similarly positive stretch late in the game, but not during the final minutes. As a whole, it manifested in poor shooting performances from two of the greatest shooters in NBA history.

Curry: 25 points (9-of-25, 6-of-18 from 3-pt), 7 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals, 1 block, 2 turnovers

Thompson: 14 points (5-of-18, 4-of-9 from 3-pt), 5 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 turnovers

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