Category: Basketball

Warriors' quest to escape mediocrity keeps slamming headfirst into iron ceiling originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors were warned late in the third quarter, smacked late in the fourth quarter, stomped into defeat in overtime and their long season of futility continues to slog forth.

They were demolished Sunday by the Toronto Raptors, who erased multiple double-digit deficits to pin them with a 141-127 overtime loss that flattened Golden State’s three-game win streak, halted any momentum that might have been built over the past week and, once again, put optimism on pause.

“It sucks,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters at Scotiabank Arena. “We’re on a little bit of a run. We’ve got a chance for some momentum, we control the whole game, and we let it slip.”

“We did enough to win, gave ourselves up a good cushion,” Stephen Curry said. “Just couldn’t get a rebound in too many you know turnovers it turned up the pressure and we just didn’t have enough answers down the stretch.”

If this feels familiar, it should. The Warriors this season are 16-16, have lost 11 of 17 “clutch” games – within five points over the final five minutes – and this marks the seventh time their opponent fought through a double-digit deficit to claim victory.

The Warriors’ preseason vision of not only making the playoffs but establishing an extended postseason run keeps slamming into reality.

The repetitive win/lose pattern of this season has left the team’s coaches and players citing the same problems that are addressed and temporarily solved – turnovers, points in the paint, second- and third-chance shots – only to consistently relapse.

So, naturally, after the Warriors gave Toronto 35 points off 21 turnovers – and often looked as if they had no idea how to break a full-court press – Kerr responded in a way he has all too often this season. He held up his finger and pointed it directly at himself.

“It was just turnovers, end of the third and end of the fourth, we just got scattered,” he said. “I’ve got to get us better organized during those stretches. That’s on me. They turned up the pressure, we didn’t handle it well and they scored 35 points off our turnovers. That was the game.”

The final 54 seconds of the third quarter provided a warning, as the Warriors watched their lead shrink from 12 to four by giving the Raptors eight points off turnovers.

The final 92 seconds of regulation raised the specter of doom, as the Warriors committed three turnovers, wiping out their seven-point (120-113) lead, leaving the game tied and setting up OT.

Toronto owned OT, outscoring the Warriors 19-5 – make it 28-7 over the final six minutes, 32 seconds.

When the Raptors turned up their pressure defense, the Warriors collapsed like a toothpick tent. The seven turnovers that cost them the game were committed by veterans and youngsters alike: Jimmy Butler III, two; and one each by Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Gary Payton II, Brandin Podziemski and rookie Will Richard.

“It was just our spacing,” Podziemski said. “We honestly haven’t worked on teams running and trapping like that, especially in the backcourt. I think we just got to fix our spacing when it comes to our alignment when there’s two people on the ball.”

This is the second time this season the Warriors took the floor chasing their fourth consecutive victory – and the second time a younger, bigger, quicker NBA team impolitely informed them that it will be difficult for their current roster to win with anything remotely resembling consistency.

Golden State’s athletically challenged roster – emphatically so with Jonathan Kuminga racking up DNP-CDs – once again revealed itself as likely to struggle against lengthy active, athletic teams.

Unfortunately, for the Warriors, that description applies to most NBA teams. 

“It’s kind of the nature of the way the league is going,” Curry said. “You have a couple of guys who are on-ball defenders, using their length and athleticism. And then you have guys on the back end who are able to kind of shoot the passing lanes or again use that length to cut off angles.”

Golden State’s current roster has, and will continue to have, difficulty overcoming such defenses – particularly when opponents intensify down the stretch. It’s visible in the seven double-digit leads blown and clutch-game losses.

None of the Warriors are enjoying this. But their quest to escape mediocrity keeps hitting an iron ceiling that, with each ugly loss, becomes more difficult to imagine them cutting through.

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Observations after Sixers get blown out by defending champs, OKC pulls away in 2nd half originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Sixers could not put together two competitive halves Sunday afternoon against the defending champions.

The Thunder pulled away at Paycom Center to earn a 129-104 win and improve to 27-5 on the season. The Sixers fell to 16-14.

Tyrese Maxey had 28 points and five assists. 

OKC’s leading scorers were Chet Holmgren with 29 points and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 27. 

The Sixers were without Joel Embiid (right ankle sprain and right knee injury management), Kelly Oubre Jr. (left knee LCL sprain) and Trendon Watford (left adductor strain). 

The third stop on the Sixers’ five-game road trip is Memphis, where they’ll play the Grizzlies on Tuesday night. Here are observations on their loss to the Thunder:

Thunder scorching from the start 

Oklahoma City made its first nine field goals.

The Sixers’ defense was not at its finest and the Thunder’s offensive execution was razor-sharp after two straight losses to the Spurs. Jalen Williams beat Paul George on a backdoor cut and laid the ball in. Holmgren scored twice over Dominick Barlow in the post and jammed in an unguarded fast-break dunk. 

In his first career game against the Thunder, VJ Edgecombe defended the reigning MVP. He had a solid start against Gilgeous-Alexander, ceding no cheap fouls, but OKC’s superstar guard is essentially impossible to shut down. Gilgeous-Alexander has now scored over 20 points in 103 consecutive games. The longest streak in NBA history is Wilt Chamberlain’s 126 straight games.

OKC did commit seven turnovers in the first quarter and the Sixers avoided any immediate blowout concerns. A Quentin Grimes three-pointer late in the first gave the Sixers their first lead at 25-24. 

Maxey back on his A-game in first half

Maxey scored nine points in the first few minutes, including a soft scoop shot and a deep jumper. 

He never cooled off in the first half and continued to drive effectively into the heart of the Thunder’s defense. Maxey began 6 for for 6 from the floor and posted 15 of the Sixers’ 29 points in the opening period. He only missed two field goals in the first half on his way to 23 points. 

While there was nothing lucky about Maxey’s shotmaking in Oklahoma City, he was also due for some kind bounces. He’d had subpar shooting nights in the Sixers’ losses to the Nets and Bulls, going 31.6 percent from the field and 31.3 percent from three-point range over those two games. 

The Sixers’ offense relied on Maxey, although the team’s bench did provide much better production than in Friday’s defeat to Chicago. 

Adem Bona had eight points, two blocks and two rebounds in an extended first stint. Justin Edwards knocked down a three as soon as he touched the ball. Jared McCain leaked out ahead of the pack for a layup and Edwards then sunk his third triple of the second quarter to put the Sixers up 58-57. They trailed by two points at intermission.

Best vs. worst in third quarter

OKC’s defense focused more on bothering Maxey after halftime and he didn’t score in the second half until a technical free throw with 7:05 left in the fourth quarter.

Unsurprisingly, Maxey’s lack of scoring coincided with the Thunder’s lead growing. Gilgeous-Alexander’s driving layup capped an 11-0 run and built OKC’s advantage to 86-73.

Neither Edgecombe (10 points on 3-for-16 shooting) nor George (12 points on 4-for-11 shooting) had the sort of efficient performances necessary to pick up Maxey’s slack after halftime.

The Sixers moved to a zone defense late in the third quarter. They weren’t able to stick with it for long, since the Thunder dissected the zone very well. OKC passed 100 points before the end of the third and the NBA’s worst third-quarter team thus far (minus-21.4 net rating entering Sunday) lost the frame by 14 points.

It just so happens that Oklahoma City is the league’s best third-quarter team. For the Sixers, Sunday’s fourth quarter was soon a hopeless cause.

Steve Kerr drops humorous one-liner about Steph Curry for advice to younger self originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Steve Kerr knows what advice he’d give his younger self when starting his Warriors coaching career in 2014.

The 60-year-old shared his hilarious answer with reporters on Sunday before Golden State’s 141-127 overtime loss against the Toronto Raptors at Scotiabank Arena.

“Just coach Steph Curry if you get a chance,” Kerr said. “Stay with that guy. I followed my own advice on that one.”

There isn’t any better guidance than that.

Kerr has spent his entire 12-year coaching career with Curry and the Warriors, and has enjoyed working with the sharpshooter to form the team’s iconic dynasty, which won four NBA championships and reached six finals between 2014-15 and 2021-22. 

The coach-guard duo also has dominated internationally, winning gold together at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics for an iconic Team USA men’s basketball squad.

Kerr is grateful to have won a lot alongside Curry. He, too, has enjoyed shaping Golden State’s offensive identity around the 11-time NBA All-Star’s 3-point shooting prowess.

“It’s a good question,” Kerr said. “It’s funny because I came in that year (2014-15), and we played a little differently than a lot of teams and everybody said we were really innovative. 

“It didn’t feel innovative to me because it was things I already learned with Phil Jackson and Greg Popovich. If anything, some of the stuff we were doing, I went back 30, 20 years to bring back. Today, we are sort of doing the opposite. We’re following other trends around the league.”

As he implied, Kerr carries several lessons he learned as a player who won five NBA titles over 15 seasons alongside other basketball legends into his coaching efforts with the Warriors.

While Kerr wisely would tell his younger self to stay attached to Curry — as he already has — the coach also would suggest being as adaptable as possible.

“I think what I’ve learned is that the league is constantly changing,” Kerr said. “And as a coach, you have to constantly be aware of what’s happening. Best example of that is two years ago, you wouldn’t have ever been able to convince me that we should crash on offensive rebounds. Now I know differently. It took our younger coaches to bring that suggestion to me. It took watching film. It took experimenting.

“So even having that conversation, 10 years ago, I wouldn’t have entertained it. So what I’ve learned 10 years into my coaching career, having been a part of championship teams, great teams, I’m learning something I never knew before. I think that’s just the case forever. Life’s always changing. Things are always changing. The game is always changing. You have to be a lifelong learner and you have to embrace everything that’s happening.”

Kerr’s journey with Curry isn’t over yet.

But even before knowing how the story ends, Kerr would tell his younger self to stay with the game’s greatest shooter of all time for the long haul.

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What we learned as turnovers doom Warriors in collapse to Raptors in overtime originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

BOX SCORE

With a chance at having their first four-game win streak of the season, the Warriors on Sunday gifted the Toronto Raptors a 141-127 overtime win three days after Christmas.

Steph Curry’s latest breathtaking show again couldn’t end in a Warriors win. Curry scored 39 points, giving himself 10 games of 30-plus points this season. The Warriors now are 4-6 when he scores at least 30 points this season.

The rest of the Warriors’ Big Three also did their part. Jimmy Butler tallied 19 points, six rebounds and five assists, and Draymond Green gave them 21 points, four rebounds and seven assists. 

But the Raptors had three players who finished with more than 20 points, and seven in double figures, including their entire starting five.

A handful of issues undid the Warriors in a frustrating loss. The Warriors were outrebounded 55 to 42, and forward Scottie Barnes came down with 25 rebounds by himself. The Raptors scored 29 points off 18 offensive rebounds. 

More than anything, though, the Warriors were bitten by their constant penchant for turnovers. In the end, the Warriors lost the turnover battle 21-15, turning into 35 points for the Raptors. The Warriors now are 4-13 when they have more turnovers than their opponent, while being 12-3 when having fewer or equal turnovers.

Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ three-game losing streak coming to an end.

Year 17 In The 6

There were two road games Curry circled before last season: Charlotte and Toronto. Curry matched how many seasons in the NBA his father, Dell, played last year and the two cities hold sentimental value for different family reasons. Charlotte is home to Curry, where Dell spent 10 of his 16 seasons in the league. But his final three, which Steph remembers best, were north of the border with the Raptors. 

Now that Curry officially has passed his father’s time spent in the NBA, he gets to play two of his final three games of 2025 in those two special road arenas, starting with Sunday’s (loss or win) in Toronto. And Curry right away added to a never-ending highlight reel in the first quarter. 

Curry’s shot-making ability and gravitational pull brought him to 15 points at halftime while going a perfect 5 of 5 at the free-throw line. The Warriors’ first points of the second half then came from a four-point play by Curry, putting them from down one to ahead by three.

The second half was more reason for all of North America to always watch Curry. After 15 first-half points, Curry exploded for 24 points in the second half – 14 in the third and 10 in the second. He made all 11 of his free throws on the night for his second game of 10 or more free throw attempts this season.

Draymond Brings The Boom Back

Through the first month of the season, Green gave Golden State another threat behind the 3-point line. He was shooting 35.7 percent on threes over 16 games, a number the Warriors will gladly take. Green even made multiple threes in half the games he played (eight) over that month’s long stretch. 

But then his accuracy from deep began abandoning him. Green in his last month of nine games played came into Sunday having shot just 26.3 percent (10 of 38) beyond the arc, with teams begging him to let it fly. The Raptors used the same strategy, constantly sagging off him, and Green finally made them pay. He made two threes in the first half to bring him to 10 points, which gave Green just his third double-digit scoring game this month.

Another two threes in the third quarter brought Green up to four threes, his most in a game since making five on Nov. 7.

Green’s aggressiveness offensively was a major plus for the Warriors. He reached 20 points for the first time this season. But Green also was one of seven Warriors with multiple turnovers.

Troubled By Turnovers

Same story, different day. Another clutch game for the Warriors full of inexcusable turnovers. 

The Warriors had a 12-point lead in the final minute of the third quarter when the Raptors then reeled off an 8-0 run behind two free throws and scoring off three straight Warriors turnovers. Right when the Warriors could have put the game away, they let the Raptors off the hook and paid severely for it. 

In their final home game of the calendar year, the Warriors had a lowly 11 turnovers for six points against the Dallas Mavericks. Those same fortunes didn’t happen against the Raptors. The Warriors were completely undone by being careless with the ball. 

Going into halftime, they were winning the turnover battle by one, six to seven, in which the Raptors had scored 10 points off turnovers. The second half was another story. The Warriors turned the ball over 13 times, six more than Toronto’s seven, and the Raptors took advantage by scoring 23 points off them. 

For the 17th time this season, the Warriors found themselves in a clutch game. They’re now 6-11 in such games. The Warriors turned the ball over five times in the clutch of the fourth quarter, and another two more in overtime. The Raptors in that time period didn’t have any turnovers while scoring 11 points off the Warriors’ seven turnovers.

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Steph Curry rocks sentimental pair of Nike Kobe 11 shoes for Warriors-Raptors originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Steph Curry’s sneaker free-agency tour continued Sunday in Toronto.

And the Warriors superstar’s choice of footwear for Sunday’s game against the Raptors was extra intentional and sentimental.

During pregame warmups, Curry rocked the “Northern Lights” Nike Kobe 11, the shoes that late NBA legend Kobe Bryant wore during his final All-Star Game in 2016 in Toronto.

He kept the sneakers on throughout the game, too.

It isn’t the first time Curry paid homage to Bryant.

In fact, during his first day of sneaker free agency after parting ways with Under Armour, Curry wore Mambacita Kobe 6 Nike shoes while warming up before the Warriors’ game against the San Antonio Spurs on Nov. 14.

After that game, Curry explained his decision.

“I know it’s weird seeing me in anything else other than my own shoes, but just the idea of what he meant — I’ve talked about Kobe a lot. That specific pair, I think it speaks for itself, what it means,” Curry told reporters after the win. “Other than that, just something I wanted to take advantage of that moment and pay tribute. I think it gave me some good energy tonight.”

Earlier Sunday, Curry arrived to Scotiabank Arena wearing rapper Drake’s Nike NOCTA Glide.

It’s clear Curry is having fun with his free agency.

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Giannis Antetokounmpo scored a game-high 29 points on his return from injury as the Milwaukee Bucks earned a 112-103 victory over the Chicago Bulls.

Antetokounmpo had missed eight games with a right calf strain, with the Bucks losing six of those matches.

The defeat for Chicago ended their five-game winning streak, but they still sit ninth and two places above Bucks in the Eastern Conference.

Elsewhere, Victor Wembanyama also made his return from injury, but his San Antonio Spurs fell to a 127-114 defeat by the Utah Jazz.

Wembanyama scored 32 points in his first start since 14 November, but 29 points from Lauri Markkanen and 28 from Keyonte George were enough for the Jazz to end Spurs' eight-game winning streak.

Anthony Black scored a career-high 38 points as the Orlando Magic beat the Denver Nuggets 127-126 despite another triple-double by Nikola Jokic.

With 21 rebounds and 12 assists, Jokic earned the 180th triple-double of his career, putting him just one behind Oscar Robertson for the second most in history.

The New York Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks 128-125, while the Sacramento Kings secured just their second win in eight games with a 113-107 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.