After another rough offensive performance on Monday night, the Golden State Warriors lost their fifth game out of their last six matchups which in the process dropped them to 19-20 on the season and to 12th in the Western Conference standings.
Although they managed to score more than 100 points for only the fourth time this month, the Warriors were routed by a late run by the Raptors that featured clutch offensive rebounds and untimely turnovers from the visitors.
An inability to execute in the clutch continues to be a fundamental problem for the Warriors
The Warriors came out of the gate awkwardly, shooting only 33% in the first-quarter, but their defense was able to capitalize on a number of mistakes from the quick-paced, sloppy Raptor offense in order to keep the game close. By the end of the first-half, Golden State were only down by two despite their inability to shoot the ball from the mid-range and the perimeter.
However, after a strong offensive third-quarter, a series of rotational mistakes led to an offensive run from Toronto that brought them back into the game. A pair of fouls in the closing seconds, one by Kyle Anderson to take them into the bonus and another on a missed free throw, narrowed the Warrior lead and shifted momentum back to the Raptors heading into the fourth-quarter.
The Warriors proceeded to score just 23 points in the final period, giving away the lead and ultimately losing on a missed Buddy Hield heave from a last-second inbound pass that would have forced overtime.
In a game where they were missing Draymond Green to illness, the Warriors desperately needed a spark to ignite their play on both ends of the floor in the closing minutes. Instead, they have dropped another clutch game and fall further away from playoff contention.
Apart from Stephen Curry, it has become readily apparent that there are very few players on the Warrior roster who are prepared to do what it takes to close out games. A road win against the Raptors -- a team that is 27th in both clutch net rating and overall defensive rating, should have been a given with a fourth-quarter lead.
Instead, they allowed Scottie Barnes and Chris Boucher to dominate them offensively. Barnes was able to get to the spots he liked and drew a number of fouls, while Boucher scored 17 of his 18 points in the fourth as he hit multiple clutch shots to help the Raptors eventually take the lead.
After posting a strong game with 20 points, Andrew Wiggins missed his last two shots and was just 2-of-6 from the floor in the fourth-quarter. Hield had eight points on only 3-of-13 shooting for the game, including missing his last two shots in the final two minutes.
After a Kyle Anderson three gave them a 101-98 lead, Golden State failed to score a single points in the last 150 seconds. Despite having the reigning Clutch Player of the Year in Curry, the Warriors currently rank 16th in the league in clutch offensive rating nearly halfway through the season.
While the loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on an Austin Reaves game-winning layup on Christmas Day has been their most visible failure in the clutch, this is a systematic issue which has pervaded the Warrior roster this season. Apart from Curry and Green, the team's inability to perform in crunch time has translated to a middling record in a stacked Western Conference.
If the Warriors cannot manage to close a game against the Toronto Raptors, who have been one of the worst teams in the NBA this season, they will continue to hover around the edges of the Play-In Tournament -- an immense disappointment for what is presumable one of the final years of Curry's career.
