What we learned as Warriors suffer brutal loss on Barnes buzzer-beater

BOX SCORE

SAN FRANCISCO – The San Antonio Spurs are not the Phoenix Suns. 

Despite having nothing to play for in the standings, the Spurs weren’t going to back down. They also weren’t going to give up when Golden State led by as much as 14 points in the first quarter. What looked to be a blowout was a battle for all four quarters. 

Thursday night at Chase Center was a game of runs that wasn’t decided until former Warrior Harrison Barnes made a fadeaway game-winning 3-pointer to beat the buzzer as Golden State lost 114-111. In a season that has featured a handful of bad losses, this one tops them all for the Warriors.

SPURS WIN! SPURS WIN! SPURS WIN! 🎉 pic.twitter.com/MZcEqV193p

— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) April 10, 2025

With the Warriors’ NBA playoff hopes coming down to the final day of the regular season, they couldn’t afford such a back-breaking loss. After outscoring the Spurs by 16 points in the third quarter, the Warriors were outscored by 15 points, 38-23, in the fourth.

Multiple miscues cost the Warriors down the stretch, including two turnovers in the final minute.

Steph Curry (30 points) and Jimmy Butler (28 points) carried the Warriors offensively, particularly in the second half. Draymond Green was one rebound and two assists shy of a triple-double, but two mental lapses defensively in the end were impossible to ignore. 

Curry was a plus-14, and no other starter had a positive plus/minus. The only other Warriors player to even have a positive plus/minus was Trayce Jackson-Davis, who was a plus-3 in three minutes.

Here are three takeaways from an inexcusable loss.

Up-And-Down Start

Playing the lifeless Suns one night prior, Warriors coach Steve Kerr commended his veteran stars – Curry, Butler and Green – for sending a message and setting a tone from the jump. On the second night of a back-to-back, the trio once again was locked in following the opening tip. 

The Warriors began the game on a 9-0 run, prompting a timeout from Spurs interim coach Mitch Johnson. Their lead was extended to 11-0 after the timeout. When Johnson first pressed pause and tried to collect his team, Green already had two points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal as he swiped down and knocked the ball away from veteran center Bismack Biyombo. 

At the end of the first quarter, the Warriors led by nine points. Curry and Butler each had seven points, and Steph also swiped two steals. Green stuffed the stat sheet with five points, four rebounds, five assists and a steal. Their movement and precision highlighted how important this game was.

Then, a lackluster start to the second quarter saw Green put an end to a 7-0 Spurs run with a three at the top of the arc. But the Warriors couldn’t get going. The Spurs held a 12-3 advantage when Curry came back in, and then moved to 19-3. Golden State got outscored 32-19 in the second quarter, turning a nine-point lead into a four-point deficit.

While the Spurs turned the heat up, the Warriors went ice-cold in the second quarter, shooting 27.3 percent from the field (6 of 22) and going just 4 of 15 (26.7 percent) on threes.

Third-Quarter Switch Flipped

Remember what a staple the third quarter used to be for the Warriors? It’s where dreams became nightmares for opposing teams. Well, those 12 minutes might not be as dominant as they once were, but they do remain a strength of the Warriors. 

They came into the day having the seventh-best third-quarter point differential in the NBA, and found whatever boost was required at halftime in the locker room. The Warriors raced out to a 6-0 run in the third quarter and never slowed down, enjoying a 37-21 advantage for the quarter. Feeding Curry certainly helped. 

Curry scored 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting and only connected on one of his five 3-point attempts in the first half. He found his rhythm in the third quarter. 

In just under 10 minutes, Curry scored 14 points, going 5 of 9 from the field, including 4 of 6 on threes. Rookie Stephon Castle was called for an off-ball foul from how much he held onto Curry, only for the greatest shooter the game has seen to then drain a trey right in front of him following the whistle.

End Of An Era? 

As Castle did his best to stick with Curry’s every move, Curry on the other side of the ball was in a matchup he has known his entire 16-year NBA career. He faced off against Chris Paul for the 40th time in the regular season, dropping to 23-17 in this rivalry between two point guards bound for the Hall of Fame. 

Paul is labeled as the pure pass-first point guard, as Curry’s unique style off the ball and shooting prowess makes him a whole other animal to handle. Through the first half, it actually was Paul who was the leading scorer of the two, 12-10, going a perfect 4 of 4 overall and 3 of 3 on threes. Curry’s huge third quarter, in which Paul went scoreless, seemed like it was going to change the script of this latest 48-minute movie. 

There were scenes of Paul goading Brandin Podziemski into an offensive foul and coaching his guys on the fly, as well as Curry igniting the home crowd with every 3-pointer that splashed through the nets. Some moments felt like flashbacks, others were a reminder of their long standing greatness to the game. Kerr said pregame he doesn’t expect Paul to retire after the season, and it’s easy to see why a team still would sign an undersized point guard who turns 40 years old in under a month. 

Just like when Curry plays LeBron James or any other legend, it was easy to appreciate what these two have meant to basketball for nearly two decades. And there’s another reason for Dub Nation to remember the days of loathing Paul.

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