What We Learned As Warriors' Epic Comeback Falls Short In Brutal Loss To Thunder

What we learned as Warriors' epic comeback falls short in brutal loss to Thunder originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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SAN FRANCISCO – As predicted, the key to stopping the machine that is the Oklahoma City Thunder is a Warriors team being down both Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler.

No, the Warriors didn’t win, falling 124-112 Tuesday night at Chase Center. What they did do is flip a switch in the second half and fight until the very end. 

The Warriors outscored the Thunder 68-61 in the second half behind a plethora of role players answering the call.

Curry missed his second straight game due to a quad contusion. Butler, who came into the game questionable, did not play the entire second half. Butler played 15 minutes in the first half and was a minus-13. He scored six points on 2-of-7 shooting and grabbed three rebounds. 

Seth Curry made his long-awaited Warriors debut and was even better than anybody could have expected, scoring 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting while playing 18 minutes off the bench. 

Pat Spencer tied his career-high of 17 points, going 8 of 14 from the field, and added six assists without any turnovers. Brandin Podziemski also scored 17 points to go with four rebounds and four assists, but his four turnovers were a team high for the Warriors (11-11). 

Reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 38 points for the Thunder (21-1).

Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ loss to end a 2-3 homestand.

Butler Tries To Power Through

It was exactly three weeks ago when the Warriors lost by 24 points to the Thunder, with Steph Curry, in a game that they trailed by as much as 36. Beating the defending champions with their superstar was a tall enough task. Without him, the proposition felt impossible. 

After seeing the scary fall Butler took Saturday night in the Warriors’ win against the New Orleans Pelicans, sitting him would have been understandable. But after being questionable all day due to a left gluteal contusion, Butler played and gave his best effort. 

Butler was scoreless in the first quarter and only took one shot. He was ultra-aggressive to begin the second quarter, taking six shots and scoring six points. Halfway through the second quarter, Butler, slightly limping, went to the Warriors’ locker room. He returned for the final two minutes of the first half. 

The Warriors trailed by 11 when he exited the Warriors’ bench, and 14 once he returned a few minutes later. Trouble came in the final few seconds of the first half. Butler tried to cut behind the Thunder’s defense and wound up with a bad limp.

Butler was not on the floor or on the bench to begin the third quarter. At the end of the third quarter, he officially was ruled out the rest of the game because of left knee soreness.

Seth’s Sensational Debut 

Steve Kerr, during his pregame press conference, said he wouldn’t hesitate to play Curry after waiting to be signed for the last six weeks. The wait finally ended at the end of the first quarter. Curry was the Warriors’ 11th player to see the floor, coming in for the last 23.8 seconds of the first quarter. 

He then started the second quarter, too. Curry’s first shot attempt and make as a Warrior came with a little more than eight minutes left in the first half when he beat the buzzer and nailed a stepback jumper. The long-distance shooting the Curry family is known for showed up a little over a minute later. 

Those were Curry’s only two shots of the first half, making both. Curry was a big part of the Warriors’ third-quarter flurry, finding his rhythm and getting better as the game went on.

Curry, after scoring five points in the first half, scored nine in the second half – four in the third quarter and five in the fourth. The last thing he looked like was a player who had been on a month-and-a-half sabbatical. His first game as a Warrior was as encouraging as it possibly could have been. 

Stunning Second Half

Watching the Warriors without their Batman and Robin of Steph Curry and Butler can feel like putting anchovies on pizza. Cereal without milk. Dry, bland, and straight up gross.

Except something sparked inside them coming out of halftime without their top two stars. What looked to be a blowout loss became an absolute battle. The Warriors went from being down 19 points at halftime to making it a two-point game going into the fourth quarter, even cutting the deficit to one point with less than two minutes remaining in the third. 

After scoring just 44 points in the first half, the Warriors exploded for 44 points in the third quarter. A total of 10 Warriors played in the third quarter, and seven scored. Spencer scored nine points, Podziemski scored eight, Draymond Green scored seven, Gary Payton II and Jonathan Kuminga scored six, and Curry and Buddy Hield each scored four.

A three from Payton at the 8:28 mark of the fourth quarter gave the Warriors their first lead since it was 6-5. Each team kept throwing a combination of haymakers and body blows, connecting each time and never letting up. The more talented team just happened to prevail in the end. 

The Thunder scored 33 points in the fourth quarter, nine more than the Warriors’ 24.

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