San Francisco – The Warriors lost their second straight game and their best defensive player, Draymond Green who earned two technical fouls in Golden State’s 118-110 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers. Just ten games into the season, Green received his first ejection in the third period.
“I’ve never heard this rule, but apparently you can retroactively call a technical from two player before upon review, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “There’s a lot of pays I’d like to go back to from three years ago. It was bizarre.”
Green got his first tech in the second quarter but the second was due to contact he made with Donovan Mitchell. Green made a hard foul on Mitchell that sent him into the stands knocking over a kid sitting front row.
On the next play Mitchell rushed Green hard to make contact referencing the previous play. The chippy altercation forced the referee’s to review the previous play and Green was ejected immediately. This was a tough loss for Golden State as they struggled against the Cavs.
“I didn’t know you could take something from a previous play, but I guess I didn’t know the rules,” said Kevon Looney.
Despite Stephen Curry 30 points the Warriors trailed Cleveland most of the game. The Cavs had six players in double digits including their starting five. Mitchell finished with 21 points and seven rebounds. Darius Garland and Even Mobley both had 19. But Golden State’s 20 turnovers were their biggest problem.
“I thought it was their defense more than carelessness,” Kerr said. “I thought their defense was really good. They were number one in the league last year for a reason, they put on a lot of pressure, their shot blocking at the rim. I thought Cleveland played great.”
The Warriors committed a season-high 20 turnovers and allowed a season-high 32 points off those turnovers. The Cavs 13 steals are the most by a Warriors opponent this season. Tonight’s loss snapped Golden State’s eight-game home winning streak over Cleveland.
Prior to tonight, the last time the Warriors were defeated in the Bay by the Cavaliers in the regular season came on 3/14/14 (103-94).
Curry posted his fifth game of 30-or-more points this season, marking the first time this season the Warriors did not win a game in which Curry scored at least 30 points. He leads the NBA in total points with 300, and made threes with 57. Curry has made four-or-more threes in every game this season, becoming the first player in NBA history to make four-plus threes in the first 10 games of a season.
He’s led Golden State in scoring in all 10 games this season, the longest-such streak by a player aged 35-or-older in league history.
Looney tallied a season-high 13 rebounds marking his fifth game of double-figure rebounds. Kuminga has scored in double-figures in six-straight games and eight of his nine games this season. The Warriors trailed most of the game, when they tied or took the lead by a few points, Cleveland kept putting up more points making it tough for Golden State.
“We gave up 43 free throws, said Curry. “They’re tall, athletic team, so if you’re playing against set defenses, taking the ball out the basket after free throws they’re going to see you coming, like that plays right into their hands.
We talked about like their style is completely different to ours and we allow them to play their type of game, and in the NBA you’re not going to be able to out shoot a team every night and overcome those mental errors, no matter how hard we fought in the third, and it’s kind of a tough way to lose.”
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