5 Lessons From Warriors’ First Home Loss
4. Turnovers Are Bad, Mkay?
Turnovers are one of the Warriors’ few Achilles heels that could hurt them in a playoff series, especially against a defensive juggernaut like the Spurs that would make them pay for it. This has been a problem all season long, with the Dubs averaging 15.1 turnovers per game — the sixth highest mark in the association.
Turnovers aren’t always the determining factor in the Warriors’ success, but in the 63 games where they’ve committed fewer than 20 turnovers, they’re 58-5 (.921 win percentage) with a monstrous point differential of +11.5.
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Compare that to a 10-3 record (.769), with a good but not great point differential of +6.7 in the 13 games where the Warriors have committed 20 or more turnovers, and it becomes pretty obvious that all this elite team has to do to win games is NOT turn the ball over a s**t-ton of times.
Against the Celtics, the Warriors committed 22 turnovers — their second highest total of any home game this season. Everyone will remember Draymond Green fumbling that pass from Stephen Curry rolling off a screen with the game on the line, but turnovers plagued the Dubs all game long.
How else can we explain the Celtics outscoring Golden State in a third quarter where Curry went supernova and dropped 21 points?
Next: No. 3