Warriors Struggle to Find Closing Identity Again, Still Fly by Raptors

Committing 20 turnovers, off which Toronto scored 26 points, didn’t cost the Warriors this game, but they surely allowed the Raptors to come back and make it close enough to rattle the nerves of the sellout crowd (19,596) at Oracle Arena.

The Raptors previously ran into Golden State during the Super Team’s 12-game winning streak earlier in the season. Kevin Durant will be playing angry having had three days to sit on the Warriors’ Christmas Day loss to the Cavaliers, and an angry Durant is something no team wants to face. Toronto capitalized on those turnovers for 22 points cutting the Warrior lead down to 5 points. There is a lot of basketball to go this season, things can change, but the West seems to be shaping up with seven teams as playoff locks barring major injuries – the Warriors, Spurs, Rockets, Clippers, Thunder, Jazz, and Grizzlies – then there is a five game drop to anyone else.

The yo-yo nature of the game, despite the Warriors never giving up the lead continued right to the end as the Raptors gamely kept fighting and got it down to five points with 3:01 to play. After a scorching start, the Warriors couldn’t buy a bucket, shooting just 1-9 in a 4-minute stretch midway through the 2nd quarter.

“I have no idea how it’ll play out”, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said, “but I know all four of our guys are very deserving”.

If the Warriors can keep evolving, though, they might turn LeBron’s own lessons against him – and avoid wasting a year of a potential dynasty. The game also falls on Whiteout Night, presented by Clorox, and all fans in attendance will receive a free Warriors Whiteout t-shirt. But they are 0-3 against the Cavaliers this season and the Warriors offered the same assessment – the Raptors are on the second tier. Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan have made huge strides this year, and they’re not a tandem to sleep on by any means.

Like Wade and LeBron before them, Durant and Stephen Curry suffer from a significant overlap in their skill sets. No one has ever questioned that the Warriors are good, and it’s possible that their issues will only be problematic against the defending champions. “That’s one of our money plays and one of the toughest thing to guard”. Bosh averaged 20.2 points per game in his 509 games with Toronto, while DeRozan has averaged 18.6 per contest over 552. “Whether he’s got the ball in his hands or off a rebound he’s just pushing and flying up the floor”, Kalamian said. Add his presence as a spot-up shooter and offensive creator out of the post, and Durant was essentially the LeBron to Curry’s Wade. The Warriors’ Kevin Durant cleaned up the glass, pulling down 17 defensive rebounds. However, Durant failed to register a single point in the fourth quarter and was part of the turnover problem, inexplicably eschewing open looks for risky passes through traffic – his final stat line included 6 turnovers. Golden State committed just one in the first quarter.

The unstoppable version of the Warriors showed up in the first quarter as they ran out to a 25-point advantage after the first quarter.