The Warriors haven’t won a game against the Memphis Grizzlies since 2010, and playing without their star Stephen Curry—diagnosed with a mild concussion on Tuesday—didn’t help their record. Golden State faced the Grizzlies on Wednesday, and the end result was their 11th straight loss to Memphis, their first home loss of the season.
This isn’t to say that the Warriors were terrible without their star player. They were able to make Wednesday’s game with the Grizzlies close—and they actually played defense! The Warriors held the Grizzlies to 38.6% shooting, but they were too much for Golden State to handle in overtime, where the Warriors eventually fell 88-81.
Harrison Barnes—who started on Wednesday in place of Curry—ended with 16 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Both Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala pitched in to help carry the offensive load. Iguodala had 14 assists on Wednesday after starting at PG, and Thompson ended up with 21 points as all of the Warriors starters played 43-49 minutes. Golden State led by as many as 12 points early in the third quarter, but they were missing a key component to their offensive game: Stephen Curry. The Warriors shot just 43.9%, 5% less than their season average.
It was a low-scoring game for both teams. With nine minutes left in regulation, the score was a mere 66-63, and ended in overtime at 88-81. Overtime was all Memphis. The Warriors tried to hold the Grizzlies off, but when Mike Conley Jr. hit the tiebreaking three-pointer with 1:36 let in overtime, the game was over. The Grizzlies kept making shots, and the Warriors’ just weren’t falling.
The Warriors also lost another player to injury. Ogjnen Kuzmic is out indefinitely with a fractured metacarpal after hitting his hand on the backboard in the final minutes of the opening period. This means that Kuzmic, Jermaine O’Neal (day-to-day), Stephen Curry, and Toney Douglas are currently out due to injuries—it seems that the Warriors’ injury curse has come back to haunt them.
Hopefully, the Warriors will rest up and get healthy in time for their next game against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday. Stephen Curry is day-to-day after his concussion, but with no symptoms other than a headache, it’s likely that he’ll be returning soon.
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