Postgame clipboard break thread: Warriors absolutely crap the bed in crunch time (again)

but hey, Gary Payton looked fantastic in his return!

Ouch. This one hurt extra. We’ve seen it before - all season in fact - the Golden State Warriors just absolutely pooped themselves in the closing possessions of this game. Instead of a feel good win and a ton of momentum to welcome back newly returned Gary Payton, the Warriors are doing an unironic version of Payton’s iconic head scratch move.

Draymond Green does plenty of good on the basketball court, but his offensive limitation often leave him at the unfortunate crux of defensive pressure and the weakest link in Golden State’s chain of offense. After running a bunch of Kerrsian action around the edges, the ball somehow finds itself in the hands of Green, who is sort of isolated way up above the three-point line. A vestigial screening position or something, I don’t know. Maybe he had a plan - but the opposing team knew he wasn’t going to shoot it or anything and easily intercepted his telegraphed pass. Easy layup on the other end.

Here’s how it unfolded.

BBALLBREAKDOWN @bballbreakdown

All the Warriors had to do was hold the ball, and not pass to Draymond so they couldn’t foul him. Epic failure of situational basketball, but there’s time

The Warriors lost the rebounding battle 49-37, and the sadder part is that Rudy Gobert dominated by collecting 18 rebounds all by himself. Naz Reid lit the Golden State defense up for 23 points (and 6 rebounds).

But this was very much a winnable game before the Warriors started shooting themselves in the foot.

Alex 👋 @Dubs408

Dray had the ball with the 4 second difference in shot clock and Warriors get outscored 4-0 in 15 seconds to lose

Ahhh, well. It was fun till it wasn’t.

Let’s get some ice cream in us and shove this painful loss on the large pile and try to move on. Why does it have to melt? It’s so good, and then turns into a melty mess? Golden State will host the Pelicans on Tuesday - another important one.