Golden State Warriors guard Chris Paul (3) get a jump shot away on the Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen (31) in the first half at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Sat Nov 11, 2023 (AP News photo)
By Barbara Mason
It was a lackluster night as the Golden State Warriors (6-4) took on the Cleveland Cavaliers (4-5) in a second game in less than a week. The Cavs won the first game 115-104 last Sunday and Golden State dropped the second game against Cleveland 115-104 Saturday night at Chase Center dropping two games in a row.
Besides a poor shooting night, the turnovers were a nightmare along with missed shots at the line and far too many fouls. There were actually 50 fouls in Saturday’s game. The game was constantly delayed with reviews and fouls resulting in an almost three hour affair. Not what the Warriors wanted to see since they play again Sunday night.
Saturday night the Warriors took on the Cavaliers at Chase Center. Last Sunday the Warriors lost to the Cavaliers in Cleveland 115-104. Saturday the Warriors were looking for a little payback.
Game recap: The first half of this game did not go well for Golden State even though they did win the opening quarter 31-30. As the first half wore on the turnovers and fouls began to mount. At the half the Warriors trailed 68-52. The Cavs won the second quarter 38-21 taking advantage of all the turnovers and fouls.
Cleveland was proving to be a handful. There were a number of scuffles on the floor that escalated in the second half. Draymond Green and Donovan Mitchell will not be exchanging holiday greetings anytime soon. Both of these players are driven and competitive and we have seen this so many times
Green and Mitchell continued this discontent into the third quarter which resulted in a technical foul which sent Green to the locker room, a major loss for Golden State. He had 8 points and five rebounds when he was ejected.
The Warriors would really have to pick up the slack in the absence of Green. They had trailed by 17 points at one time in the third but had cut the Cavalier lead to eight points 77-69 with under five minutes left in the third quarter.
The Warriors had shot at 38% from the field but the Cavaliers had outplayed Golden State so far in this game. The Warriors continued to fight back in this game as more and more physicality was displayed by both teams.
The 17 point Cleveland lead had been cut to four and could have been a lot closer had it not been for the Warriors numerous missed free throws. As the third quarter came to an end, despite all that had gone awry, Golden State trailed by a single point 84-83. The Warriors had blitzed the Cavs in the third 31-16.
It all came down to the fourth quarter in this game. Cleveland’s Dean Wade fouled out in the early minutes of the quarter in this highly competitive contest. The Cavaliers continued to push the lead out leading 92-85 at 9:27.
Warrior guard Stephen Curry had already shot for 30 points but Klay Thompson was having a quiet night so far with five points and they would need him if they wanted to try and closeout the game. The Warriors were just not shooting well and the 17 turnovers had resulted in 24 Cleveland points. With six minutes left in the game, the Cavaliers had taken a 104-92 lead.
A poor game at the line, 18 turnovers and the fouls resulted in a second loss to Cleveland 118-110. On top of it all, the Warriors, other than Curry, did not have a great shooting night. Golden State had expended so much energy coming back in the third quarter, they were spent in the later minutes of the fourth quarter.
Curry was the only player on the floor with big numbers and he began to force shots launching long balls from downtown often in the final quarter and coming up short much of the time finishing 4 of 14. Thompson began to heat up with three minutes left in the game but it was too little too late.
The Warriors will take on the Minnesota Timberwolves Sunday evening at Chase. Tipoff for that game is scheduled for another 5:30 start.
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