The Warriors played most of the second half without Draymond Green and petered out, giving up with 2:12 left in the game.
Green had been ejected for picking up two technical fouls, and the Warriors didn’t stand much of a chance without him for an extended period of time. They got outscored 31 to 18 in the fourth quarter before the Warriors emptied their bench — and before clock malfunctions prolonged GSW’s inevitable defeat.
The Cavaliers controlled the paint and limited the Warriors (6-4) to 34.2% shooting from deep. Although Stephen Curry dropped 30 points, he and Klay Thompson combined to go 6-for-19 from deep in a 118-110 loss.
Curry is still the only Warrior to score more than 20 points in a game; Thompson’s 14 points Saturday was the second highest total.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ loss.
Cleveland’s size advantage
The Warriors are already on the smaller side. Then they lost Green.
With Kevon Looney or Dario Saric at the five, the Cavaliers owned the paint. Without much rim protection, guards like Caris LeVert and Donovan Mitchell faced little friction at the basket.
Although the Warriors actually won the rebounding battle by 10, the Cavaliers outscored the Warriors 50 to 34 in the key. Cleveland has length at every position, and it showed.
Last week when these teams matched up, Cleveland won the points in the paint battle 58 to 24.
To start the fourth quarter after a resounding third-quarter run, the Warriors tried Brandin Podziemski instead of Gary Payton II. Given Payton’s defensive acumen and effort on the boards, perhaps they could’ve used him with their size deficiency.
Crucially, Golden State didn’t hit enough shots from the outside to counterbalance the Cavaliers’ size. Especially when Cleveland played Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley together, Golden State should have been able to stretch them out, but the Warriors ended up going 13-for-38 from deep.
The starting five: nothing broken to fix
Chatter has started to emanate about whether the Warriors should consider mixing up the starting lineup — the same starting lineup it has used to reach the top of the NBA mountain.
Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney.
It’s generally an early-season overreaction. But given Wiggins’ struggles, the narrative has started to take hold. Entering Saturday, the unit was -17 in 67 minutes.
Saturday, Golden State’s starters began slow, starting 1-for-5 from the floor. Draymond Green recorded both of GSW’s first two buckets as Cleveland built a quick lead.
But after a timeout, the Warriors went on a dominant 7-0 run led by the same unit, winning the minutes 15-14. Then to open the third quarter, the same starting group willed Golden State back into the game.
Green is still settling in after missing training camp and the five-man combination has a resume of championship-level success. There’s no reason to panic. At some point, one of these players will figure out how to score 20 points.
Tale of two quarters
Caris LeVert heated up off the bench. Donovan Mitchell got downhill and rained from deep. The Cavaliers took care of the ball, preventing the Warriors from running in transition. Cleveland’s defense — the top ranked unit from last year — smothered the Warriors almost every trip down. They slowed the game down and made every Golden State pass difficult.
The Cavaliers dominated the Warriors in the second quarter to the degree teams rarely will be able to this year. In the first nine minutes of the period, Cleveland outscored the Warriors 24-9.
Much of the damage was done against GSW’s second unit, which has looked fantastic otherwise this season.
In the quarter — and for much of the game — the Cavaliers looked not only like a talented team, but one that knows exactly how to play with each other. At one point, the Warriors resorted to a zone to try to slow their locked-in offense down. Not even an inspired Draymond Green presented much of a resistance.
The Warriors entered the second quarter with a one-point lead. They then headed into halftime facing a 68-52 deficit.
Golden State was just as capable of dominating in the third. Perhaps invigorated by Green’s ejection, the Warriors won the quarter 31-16. Many of the same shots Cleveland had been hitting started to clank. Curry torched the Cavs; he was one of two Warriors in double-digit scoring entering the fourth.
The script-flip cut Cleveland’s lead to one, but the Warriors didn’t have enough to continue the momentum.