The Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry takes a spill after scoring against the Memphis Grizzlies in the first half at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Thu Oct 28, 2021 (AP News photo)

Memphis Hands Golden State First Loss 104-101

By Barbara Mason

The Golden State Warriors (4-1) came into tonight’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies (3-2) with a perfect 4-0 record. They had to fight tooth and nail to win their last game against the young OKC squad who gave them quite a fight. Golden State made alot of errors and the Thunder wasted no time taking advantage of those mistakes.

Against the Grizzlies, the Warriors will have to have a much better start than they did in their last outing and clean up those turnovers. After the scare last Tuesday it’s a good bet that we will see a different start tonight against Memphis. Also the Warriors are sixth in the league in rebounding and so that is another facet that they will be depending on.

The Grizzlies have weapons of their own with Ja Morant who is relentless in attacking the basket. They also have Desmond Bane who has averaged 19.2 points per game. The problem for Memphis is that outside of Bane the Grizzlies do not take many 3”s. They are good on the interior but it’s hard to match the Warriors without perimeter shooting. The Grizzlies would come out play the Warriors for the Warriors first loss of the season 104-101 on Thursday night.

It was a monster first quarter for Golden State; the exact start they wanted to see. The Warriors shot 58% in the first quarter leading 37-20. Otto Porter Jr. was 2-2 on 3’s and had 8 points in the quarter. Iguodala, Bjelica and Porter had already made a huge difference in this game off this beautifully balanced bench.

Memphis was 0 for 10 on 3’s to start the second quarter unable to even come close to matching Golden State, although it was all Grizzlies in the first five minutes of the second quarter trimming their 17 point deficit to 8. Memphis started hitting 3’s and the Grizzlies were chipping away at the Golden State lead. Memphis would get within 6 points but that’s as close as they came in the quarter. Golden State led at the half 55-45 and Stephen Curry had 22 points and was 4 of 9 on 3’s. The Warriors had their first half time lead of the season.

The Grizzlies Ja Morant was limited to 7 points in the first half and so the Warriors were doing a great job taking him out of the game although he did start to heat up in the closing minutes of the second quarter.

Giveaways were killing the Warriors in the early minutes of the third quarter. The turnovers were piling up and the Grizzlies were taking full advantage. WIth Ja Morant really heating up there was trouble brewing for the Warriors. Golden State got back to the ten point half time lead with less than a minute left in the quarter but Ja Morant and company continued to grind and with one quarter left in the game the Warriors led 79-73. The stubborn Grizzlies just would not go away. The Grizzlies had 20 points off turnovers which was troublesome.

Now it was up to the bench to take this game home for the Warriors in the fourth quarter. Mid-way through the quarter the Grizzlies had tied up this game at 86. With six minutes left in the final quarter Memphis took their first lead in the game 89-86. At 3:01 Memphis was leading 96-93 as the Grizzlies refused to back down. With 2.1 left in the game the Warrior had one final shot to either win this game or go into overtime. This game would go into overtime. This was the third straight game that Curry did not score in the fourth quarter.

The two reasons for this overtime were the resurgence of Ja Morant and the 22 turnovers by Golden State. A defensive display by Memphis in overtime gave them a three point lead 104-101 with 57 ticks left on the clock.

It’s near to impossible to win with 23 turnovers and such was the case in this game. The Grizzlies won the game 104-101 in the overtime. Curry had not score in the fourth quarter or the overtime. He did have 36 points to finish this game. The Grizzlies were just better when it mattered winning the second, third and fourth quarters and of course the overtime.

The Warriors will take on the OKC Thunder Saturday night at 5:30. They have a lot of work ahead of them most importantly taking care of the careless turnovers.