In a strong candidate for worst team-wide performance of the NBA season, the Warriors were crushed by 51 points in Memphis on Thursday night, getting next to nothing offensively from their veterans and giving zero resistance defensively in a 144-93 loss to the Grizzlies.
Both of Steph Curry’s points came from the free-throw line. He was otherwise scoreless, missing all seven of his shots in 24 of the least productive minutes of his career. He hadn’t scored two or fewer in a game since 2018. He’s never failed to make a field goal in a regular-season game, prior to Thursday night, when logging at least 12 minutes.
It was the fourth-worst loss in franchise history for the Warriors, but they’ve had a worse one recently. The Celtics beat them by 52 points in Boston last March.
Thursday’s complete no-show from the Warriors came at a particularly surprising time. They were rested — having played only one game in the previous seven days — and introducing a highly touted reinforcement that had the organization buzzing in recent days. The Warriors traded for Dennis Schröder over the weekend, believing the 18-point per game scoring guard could boost their struggling offense.
Steve Kerr started Schröder next to Curry in his debut. He went a woeful 1 for 9 shooting in the first half and finished 2 for 12. Combined with Curry, the starting backcourt missed all 10 of their 3s. Schröder’s five points were fewer than all but one of his 23 games for the Brooklyn Nets. He also had four of the team’s 17 turnovers.
Draymond Green’s minutes also weren’t of much help. Kerr inserted him back into the starting lineup ahead of Jonathan Kuminga, who had started the previous six games, because he wanted to reestablish a defensive identity after the Mavericks put up 143 points on them Sunday. Green was ineffective early, committing four first-half fouls in 10 minutes. He went scoreless, had four turnovers and the Warriors lost his 19 minutes by 42 points.
The Warriors defense, which spent much of the early season ranked second in defensive rating behind only the Thunder, has now given up 287 combined points the last two games. They’ve dropped to seventh in defensive rating and continue to tumble down the Western Conference standings. After a 12-3 start, they’re 2-9 in their last 11 games and currently sit 10th at 14-12 with a big road game in Minnesota on Saturday night.
“I know we’re going to bounce back,” Kerr told reporters in Memphis. “I’m not concerned about that. But we’ve got a lot to work to do to execute and learn how to execute under pressure and take care of the ball and get good shots.”
(Photo of Dennis Schröder and Steph Curry: Justin Ford/Getty Images)
