So now it\u2019s official. Not only can the Golden State Warriors lose this season, they can even lose at home.<\/p>\n
Boston pulled off the surprise Friday night, going into Oracle Arena and stunning the reigning NBA champions 109-106. Even with the loss, Golden State \u2014 still 68-8 on the season \u2014 remains on pace to top the 72-10 mark set by the Chicago Bulls in the 1995-96 season for the best record in NBA history.<\/p>\n
It was Golden State\u2019s first loss in its last 55 home regular-season games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes a lot out of you,\u201d Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the loss in Oakland, California, \u201cespecially when every game is the other team\u2019s biggest game. People are coming after us.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are some factors to take into account, of course. The Warriors are still without Andre Iguodala because of an ankle injury, and lost center Andrew Bogut in the second half Friday with a rib injury. And Friday\u2019s game was Golden State\u2019s 24th in of 42 days since the All-Star break. So it\u2019s a safe bet fatigue entered the equation as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to tip your hat to them,\u201d Celtics guard Isaiah Thomas said.<\/p>\n
Still, there are trends from the eight losses that might serve as a blueprint for those teams trying to beat the Warriors in the looming postseason.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a look:<\/p>\n
\nChecking Klay<\/strong><\/p>\n In the Warriors\u2019 losses, Stephen Curry (who has played in seven of them, sitting out the other with injury) has been his typical MVP-level self. He\u2019s averaged 28 points, 5.7 assists and 5.6 rebounds in the games where he\u2019s played and Golden State has been beaten.<\/p>\n So obviously, he\u2019s not exactly getting shut down.<\/p>\n But keeping the other \u201cSplash Brother\u201d in check has proved vital to opponents.<\/p>\n Klay Thompson\u2019s numbers in Golden State\u2019s eight defeats have been, by his standards, plebian. He\u2019s shooting 39 percent in losses, 23 percent from 3-point range, averaging just 3.5 rebounds and 2 assists as well.<\/p>\n In Golden State\u2019s wins, of which he\u2019s appeared in 66, Thompson is shooting 48 percent, 45 percent from 3-point range. And when he makes more than half his shots, the Warriors are 24-1.<\/p>\n Thompson\u2019s line in the loss to Boston: 6 for 16 from the floor, and only three points despite playing the entire fourth quarter.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let them get away<\/strong><\/p>\n When the Warriors get a double-digit lead, they win.<\/p>\n That\u2019s automatic, at least this season. There have been 63 in which the Warriors led by 10 points or more. They\u2019re 63-0 in those games, though some of them have certainly been highly eventful down the stretch.<\/p>\n On Friday, Boston\u2019s biggest deficit was midway through the second quarter when it trailed by seven points.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the largest one successfully overcome by a Golden State opponent all season, with the other leads that the Warriors lost in their first seven defeats being three, two, six, three, two, five and three points, respectively.<\/p>\n The other critical thing Boston handled was not giving up a big run. Golden State\u2019s top unanswered spurts were a pair of 6-0 runs, one at the start of each half.<\/p>\n Off nights (almost) required<\/strong><\/p>\n Boston did what almost no one has this season. The Celtics beat Golden State on a night when the Warriors weren\u2019t having what could be described as an \u201coff\u201d shooting night.<\/p>\n The Warriors made 46 percent of their shots. Going into the game, Golden State had been 56-1 this season when shooting that well from the floor.<\/p>\n When the Warriors are off, they\u2019ve been doomed. Luckily for them, it doesn\u2019t happen often. When shooting less than 41 percent, Golden State is 2-6 this season.<\/p>\n Also, if the Warriors go up to 50 percent shooting, they win. They\u2019ve won their last 66 games when making at least half their shots, including playoffs. The last time they shot 50 percent in a loss was Nov. 11, 2014 \u2014 against San Antonio.<\/p>\n Win the half<\/strong><\/p>\n Getting the halftime lead has been a prerequisite to beating the Warriors.<\/p>\n Boston was up only 45-43, but a lead is a lead \u2014 and the numbers say that if the Celtics didn\u2019t have even that slight margin, they would have lost.<\/p>\n Golden State is 60-0 when leading at halftime. When the Warriors trail at the break, they are a mere 8-8.<\/p>\n Slow it down<\/strong><\/p>\n Last and possibly deservedly least, because it\u2019s far easier said than done, would be this tip: Slow them down.<\/p>\n Many have tried.<\/p>\n Most have failed.<\/p>\n But when the Warriors don\u2019t score 100 points \u2014 though this rule didn\u2019t apply Friday \u2014 they\u2019re 1-5 this season. When they reach the century mark, they\u2019re 67-3. And when they get to 111 points, they\u2019re a perfect 53-0.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" So now it\u2019s official. Not only can the Golden State Warriors lose this season, they can even lose at home. Boston pulled off the surprise Friday night, going into Oracle Arena and stunning the reigning NBA champions 109-106. Even with the loss, Golden State \u2014 still 68-8 on the season \u2014 remains on pace to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":3627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":6,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-3626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3626"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}