In one of the most stunning upsets of the season, the Los Angeles Lakers manhandled the Golden State Warriors, sending the top team in the NBA home with an 112-95 loss Sunday.
To say the Warriors struggled in Staples Center would be an understatement. With 25 points from Jordan Clarkson, the Lakers held a steady offensive attack, but the Warriors simply couldn’t get anything going when they had the ball, shooting a dismal 4-of-30 from beyond the arc.
Steph Curry finished 1-of-10 from long range, and Klay Thompson missed all eight of his three-point shots. Not the best outing for the Splash Bros.
I guess everyone is entitled to an off night, but the loss does reveal a bigger problem for the Warriors—they simply don’t look like the same team since the All-Star break. Since their week off, the Warriors have lost two of their nine games, including this one to the Lakers and a 32-point loss to the Portland Trail Blazers in their first game back. Only two of their seven wins over the same span have come by more than 10 points, and both the Atlanta Hawks and Oklahoma City Thunder came within a minute of upsetting Steph and company before losing in overtime.
So what’s wrong with the Warriors? Are we overreacting? After all, this team is still on pace to break Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls 72-10 record finish. But with 21 games left, the Warriors cannot continue to drop a game a week. Even crazier than that is the Warriors are now only 2.5 games ahead of the San Antonio Spurs with three matchups left on the schedule—and two of those are in Texas
So will this off-stretch for the Warriors impact their shot at history? Could they fall into second in the Western Conference after months of people comparing them to the greatest teams of all time? All I know is, with the Cleveland Cavaliers having struggles of their own, the No. 1 seed in the West should easily be the NBA Champs.
Do the Warriors have another one in them?