The Warriors shoot 58 threes and lose 101-115 to the Orlando Magic at home.
The Warriors barely look at the rim for most of the game and fire away from deep with minimal success, Anthony Lamb is the Warriors' best player (seriously), and the Magic dominate in the paint.
The Orlando Magic are a likely lottery team but they’re not pushovers. Back in November when the Warriors embarrassed themselves on the road in Orlando, the Magic had just a 1-7 record. Tonight, they came into the game a lowly 14-25, but they’d beaten the Boston Celtics twice in the midst of a 6-game win streak, which is more games than the Warriors have won in a row at any point in the season.
None of this is to say that the Warriors shouldn’t be embarrassed by their performance tonight, but rather to acknowledge that the Magic are a talented team. The things that the Magic do well seem really give the Warriors fits and tonight, pretty much every player in white and gold looked small and a step slow in a demoralizing 101-115 loss. At one point in the game, the Magic had 50 points in the paint to the Warriors’ 22 points and while it might be hard to believe, the Magic only shot 24 free throws to the Warriors’ 21 on a night where they were the significantly more aggressive team attacking the rim.
The Warriors, on the other hand, shot 58 shots from deep in the game and took a bonkers 33 attempts from three to the Magic’s 16 in the first half. Because the Warriors — and more specifically, Anthony Lamb — were hot from three in that first half, they entered the third quarter only trailing by three points despite barely taking any shots at the rim. But in the third quarter, the Magic took a hold of the game and never relinquished control as they attacked the rim over and over again while the Warriors fired impotently from deep.
After Patrick Baldiwn Jr. countered a Franz Wagner finger roll with a three at the start of the fourth quarter, the Warriors trailed by only 9 points. That was the last time that the Warriors were within single digits for the rest of the game. What followed was deeply frustrating — the Warriors took just four shots from inside the arc prior to garbage time and made just two of those two-point shots while shooting 4/11 from deep.
Some numbers and observations:
Only 36.7% of the Magic’s shot attempts came from three tonight, while the Warriors took 65.9% of all of their shots from beyond the arc. The Warriors did make 18 threes tonight to the Magic’s 13, but while the Warriors chucked mindlessly from deep, the opposing team killed the Warriors with points in the paint and threes created by dribble penetration. The Magic’s leading scorers, Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner, scored 25 and 24 points respectively on 6/9 and 5/11 shooting on two-point field goals. The Magic also got 16 points each from Cole Anthony and Markelle Fultz, who shot 4/7 and 8/14 on two-point field goals.
The Warriors’ two leading scorers were Anthony Lamb and Jordan Poole, who scored 26 and 21 points respectively, and took 6 shots apiece from inside the arc. Lamb was, unfortunately, the Warriors’ best player tonight and while he shot 4/6 on two-point field goals, he also shot 5/14 from deep while Poole shot 2/11 from beyond the arc. It’s hard to understate how frustrating Poole was to watch tonight. Although Poole dished out 6 assists, he committed four turnovers and at least three or four of his shots from deep were so ill-advised that they might as well have been turnovers. Save for a drive to the hoop late in the fourth quarter with the game well out of reach, Poole mostly floated in and out of the game.
Lamb, on the other hand, made his first four three-pointers of the night and buoyed the threat of his shot into aggressive drives to the rim and four assists. It seemed as if Lamb was the only Warrior who had any desire to do something about the Warriors’ three-happy offense and actually make an honest attempt to get to the hoop.
Klay Thompson was a late scratch from tonight’s game with knee soreness, which put a damper on the returns of Andrew Wiggins and Andre Iguodala. Both Wiggins and Iguodala played limited minutes (19 for Wiggins and 11 for Andre) and looked very much like players who were trying to get their legs under them. Wiggins scored 12 points, shot 2/7 from deep, and didn’t get to the rim at all tonight while Iguodala didn’t take a shot in his 11 minutes and turned the ball over twice.
I expect Wiggins and his shot to get somewhere near his pre-injury level at some point, but it worries me that he’s taking a career-low 15.4% of his shots from 0-3 feet. I didn’t expect Wiggins to be attacking the rim in his first game back, but his increased share of three-point shooting makes it all the more jarring when those shots aren’t falling and he’s not getting to the rim as he did earlier in his career.
As for Andre... well. I’m glad he’s back and I think Jordan Poole should benefit from his presence. But as he becomes more shot-averse, I worry he may become increasingly turnover-prone and I really do not think the Warriors can get away with playing him and Donte DiVincenzo at the same time. Because DiVincenzo and Iguodala are both unlikely to shoot or finish at the rim, teams can run them off of the three-point line and not worry about having to protect the rim on their drives.
Donte DiVincenzo finished tonight’s game with 15 points on 5/12 shooting, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and just 1 turnover. You’re probably sick of me harping on the same single complaint about DiVincenzo, so feel free to check out now, but Donte only took one shot inside the arc tonight.
Maybe it’s because he’s a rookie, or maybe because he plays a position where ball-handling and shot creation is not expected of him, Patrick Baldwin Jr’s reliance on three-point attempts is not nearly as troubling to me as DiVincenzo’s. In 14 minutes, PBJ scored 9 points and hit 3 of his 6 shots from deep. Baldwin Jr. did take three shots from inside the arc and he missed them all, but he’s now put together nearly two weeks of games where he’s been more impactful than Moses Moody, who missed all three of his shot attempts and passed up a buzzer-beating three in the first quarter because of a poorly-timed pump fake.
Draymond Green and Kevon Looney haven’t come up until now which is an unfortunate omission on my behalf but also a reflection of their forgettable performances. It’s now been weeks since Looney has registered a positive plus/minus — he was a team-worst -18 tonight — and Draymond Green scored just 5 points, grabbed 5 rebounds, dished out 6 assists, and turned the ball over three times. Did I mention that Draymond took four shots from deep in the first quarter? Draymond and Kevon looked exhausted and small tonight, but because of the Warriors’ injury woes and their pitiful frontcourt depth, they’re being forced into extended minutes where they are each the Warriors’ lone big. That’s not sustainable for a team that wants Green and Looney healthy come playoff time.
Rotation watch:
1st Q:
12:00 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Wiggins/D. Green/Looney: 0-0, tie game.
7:28 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Lamb/Iguodala/D. Green: 10-11, Magic lead.
0:50 — Jerome./Moody/Baldwin Jr./Lamb/Looney: 26-24, Warriors lead.
Moments prior to tip-off, the Warriors unexpectedly pulled Klay Thompson out of the starting lineup. In his place, Donte DiVincenzo got his 7th consecutive start. DiVincenzo’s presence in the starting lineup gave the Warriors some continuity and additional ball movement, at least in comparison to their expected starting lineup with Klay Thompson at the off-guard. The Warriors’ ball movement in the early minutes of the game was quite crisp and they shot 3/6 from deep in the first four or so minutes of the game. This possession was particularly nice:
Early in the quarter, Steve Kerr made his first substitutions of the night and brought in Andre Iguodala and Anthony Lamb for Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney. Somehow, the Warriors didn’t take their first two-point attempt until the 5:31 mark of the first quarter when Jordan Poole hit a reverse layup to make the score 15-15. The Warriors would take just one more two-point field-goal attempt for the rest of the quarter and finish the period shooting 8/17 from three.
Here’s the tally on those three-point attempts: Patrick Baldwin Jr. made his only three, Jordan Poole missed his two attempts, Andrew Wiggins shot 1/2, Donte DiVincenzo shot 1/3, Draymond Green went 1/4 from deep (Andre Iguodala did lob him a grenade three-point attempt late in the clock when he passed up a late-clock ISO in the post), and Anthony Lamb shot 4/5 from deep and finished the quarter with 14 points in 8 minutes.
The Magic, on a much more balanced diet of shots, scored 28 points to the Warriors’ 29 in the quarter and got 11 points from their star rookie, Paolo Banchero. Early in the game, Banchero was matched up against Donte DiVincenzo, who defended admirably, but was undersized defending him and gave up a dunk after getting bodied out of the lane. Later in the period, Anthony Lamb and Andre Iguodala both got a few possession defending Banchero. This post possession of Banchero vs. Lamb demonstrated the rookie’s advanced feel for the game:
2nd Q:
12:00 — Jerome/Moody/PBJ/Lamb/Looney: 29-28, Warriors lead.
11:11 — Jerome/Moody/Wiggins/PBJLooney: 30-30, tie game.
7:51 — Poole/Jerome/Moody/Wiggins/D. Green: 35-42, Magic lead.
7:32 — Poole/Jerome/DiVincenzo/Wiggins/D. Green: 38-42, Magic lead.
6:32 — Poole/Jerome/Divincenzo/Lamb/D. Green: 41-45, Magic lead.
5:02 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Lamb/D. Green/Looney: 46-47, Magic lead.
0:21 — DiVincenzo/Wiggins/Lamb/Iguodala/Looney: 59-62, Magic lead.
Andrew Wiggins checked in early in the second quarter and less than a minute into his stint, the Magic went on a 6-1 run. The Warriors opted, for some reason, to put Patrick Baldwin Jr. on Franz Wagner, who glided into an easy layup past PBJ and then hit a three after an Andrew Wiggins turnover attempting to enter the ball in the post to Kevon Looney. On the next possession, Wiggins lost the ball twice, which resulted in a Jalen Suggs transition and-one against Ty Jerome and prompted an early timeout by Steve Kerr with the Magic leading 36-31.
After that timeout, Andrew Wiggins hit a pull-up mid-range jumper to make the score 37-33, Magic lead. That shot was just the Warriors’ third two-point field goal attempt in the entire game and on the next possession, Ty Jerome hit a floater for the Warriors’ fourth two-point field goal, but Franz Wagner picked up an and-one layup on Kevon Looney to make the score 42-35.
Jordan Poole and Draymond Green checked into the game at the 7:51 mark of the period with the Warriors trailing 35-42 and less than twenty seconds later, Donte DiVincenzo followed them Although the Warriors added six points on two attempts from deep — of course — in the following minutes, turnovers and foul helped the Magic push their lead to 6 points before Anthony Lamb hit a three and Ty Jerome hit a floater to force a Magic timeout with 5:02 left in the period.
After that Warriors’ timeout, Paolo Banchero drove against Kevon Looney trying to draw a foul, did not get the whistle, and made the bucket anyway and on the next possession, he hit an early shot-clock three. Anthony Lamb scored the Warriors’ fifth two-point field goal on a drive to the hoop for 19 first-half points at the 3:31 mark, but Banchero rimmed in another three, his third of the night on the next trip down.
In the final three minutes of the period, Steve Kerr closed with a somewhat familiar lineup of Poole/DiVincezo/Lamb/D. Green/Looney. Notably absent from the closing lineup was Andrew Wiggins, who played just 9 first-half minutes. Lamb, presumably closing in place of Wiggins, hit an and-one layup at the 2:19 mark and his free throw, which gave him 22 points in the half, and Jordan Poole hit a tough transition layup 13 seconds later after a Draymond Green block, which put the score at 56-57, Orlando lead. About a minute after an aggressively bricked layup by Poole in transition, Franz Wagner hit three to put the Magic up by four points with under a minute left in the left and they eventually finished the quarter with a 62-59 lead over the Warriors.
3rd Q:
12:00 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Wiggins/D. Green/Looney: 59-62, Magic lead.
8:23 — Poole/Wiggins/Lamb/Iguodala/D. Green: 66-76, Magic lead.
7:09 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Lamb/Iguodala/D. Green: 67-80, Magic lead.
4:23 — Poole/Jerome/Lamb/Iguodala/D. Green: 74-84, Magic lead.
3:24 — Poole/Jerome/Lamb/PBJ/D. Green: 77-89, Magic lead.
Andrew Wiggins hit a three less than 30 seconds into the period to tie the game at 62 points apiece and shortly after, things fell apart. Paolo Banchero drew a foul on Andrew Wiggins and split his free throws and then hit a three immediately after a live-ball turnover by Jordan Poole to make the score 62-66. Draymond Green drew a shooting foul at the 10:39 mark and then proceeded to miss both of his free throws and on the next possession, Markelle Fultz got a post-up bucket against Donte DiVincenzo. Andrew Wiggins went into the post on the next possession to try and get the Warriors... something but didn’t get anywhere, and instead, Paolo Banchero got a three on the next possession, which gave the Magic a 9-point lead. You can see that sequence below:
Predictably, that Banchero three above led to a Warriors’ timeout. Andre Iguodala and Anthony Lamb checked in shortly after that timeout with the Magic leading by 10 points and with Draymond Green having picked up his fourth foul of the game on a charge call. After Lamb and Iguodala checked into the game, Andrew Wiggins hit a free throw, which Markelle Fultz followed with two consecutive buckets to put the Magic up by 13 with 7:09 left. The Magic’s lead got as high as 15 points with 3:18 left in the period as the Warriors looked incapable of defending dribble penetration and committed 6 turnovers after Steve Kerr made his first subs of the third quarter.
With Klay Thompson out and the Warriors looking for a spark, Steve Kerr turned to several lineup combinations during the third quarter that had never played together. Two lineups stood out as particularly punchless, particularly on offense: Poole/Wiggins/Lamb/Iguodala/D. Green and then Poole/DiVincenzo/Lamb/Iguodala/D. Green. The Warriors created very few easy shots during the four minutes those two lineups played together, which was due in large part to Andre Iguodala’s unwillingness to take shoot the ball. Anthony Lamb assisted an improbable Kevon Looney bucket off of a loose ball and then forced his way to the hoop for a layup at the 4:55 mark to make the score 73-84.
The Warriors didn’t get a truly easy shot until Patrick Baldwin Jr. hit a three with 34 seconds left to cut the Magic’s lead to 10 points. Baldwin Jr. got another good look from three with 0.8 seconds left in the quarter, but that shot missed and the Warriors entered the fourth quarter trailing 82-92.
4th Q:
12:00 — Jerome/DiVincenzo/Wiggins/Lamb/PBJ: 82-92, Magic lead.
9:41 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Wiggins/Lamb/D. Green: 85-99, Magic lead.
7:18 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Lamb/D. Green/Looney: 88-105, Magic lead.
3:50 — Poole/DiVincenzo/Moody/Lamb/PBJ: 97-113, Magic lead.
2:11 — Jerome/Rollins/DiVincenzo//Lamb/PBJ: 99-115, Magic lead.
Steve Kerr opened the fourth quarter with another completely unfamiliar lineup, this one with Patrick Baldwin Jr. at the 5. PBJ hit a three less than 30 seconds into the quarter and came out shortly after Anthony Lamb and Andrew Wiggins were called for fouls. The free throws from those foul calls gave the Magic a 14-point lead and seemed to deflate the Warriors to a terminal state. By the 7:23 mark of the period, the Magic led by 18 points and had shot 8 free throws in the period, scored twice on drives and made a three. The Warriors, on the other hand, had only added a Baldwin Jr. three and an Andrew Wiggins mid-range jumper to the scoreboard until Jordan Poole made a pair of free throws with just over 7 minutes left in the period.
Donte DiVincenzo hit back-to-back threes to cut the Magic’s lead to 14 points, but that was the last good-vibes moment of the quarter. After Franz Wagner missed a three, the Warriors pushed the ball up the court, and the offensive possession that ensued resulted in a favorable switch for Jordan Poole against Mo Wagner but ended in a missed Anthony Lamb three. You can see that possession below:
Jordan Poole’s layup at the 3:26 mark was the Warriors’ final made field goal prior to the onset of garbage time, which effectively began at the 3:50 mark when Draymond Green and Anthony Lamb subbed out for Moses Moody and Patrick Baldwin Jr.