Golden State Warriors Trounced By Charlotte Bobcats 91-75

The Golden State Warriors fell to the Charlotte Bobcats 91-75 in an abysmal performance at home. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports

In their last game, the Golden State Warriors did not necessarily play well, but rode Stephen Curry’s hot hand to a victory over the Jazz.

Against the Charlotte Bobcats on Tuesday night, there would be no such bailing out. Curry could only muster up 17 points as the Warriors fell to the Bobcats 91-75 in an abysmal performance at home.

Golden State (29-20) shot just 31.2 percent (20-of-93) from the field, and an ugly 20 percent (4-of-20) from three-point range. They also stayed par for the course with their 16 turnovers, and all of the above resulted in a meager 75-point performance.

Defensively, the Warriors didn’t fare much better. The Bobcats (22-28) are not a great offensive team (bottom-3 in points and field-goal percentage), but they looked like the Miami Heat tonight. Charlotte shot lights out at 47.4 percent, and they were paced by 30 points from Al Jefferson, who dominated Andrew Bogut in the paint all night long.

The Warriors fell behind early in the contest, and were never able to get any flow or energy going, which is disappointing considering that they’ve been off since last Friday. Golden State scored 13 points in the first quarter — Charlotte doubled that amount — and made just a quarter of its shots.

The 13-point deficit at the end of the first would be the constant for the rest of the game, as the Warriors seemingly either had no offensive gameplan whatsoever, or their gameplan was simply ineffective. They were able to cut the lead to single-digits a few times, but never even put together a sustained run to make the game interesting.

All in all, an awful game for the Warriors.

Tale of the Tape

Warriors

• Field-goal percentage: 31.2% (20-93)
• Three-point percentage: 20% (4-20)
• Rebounds: 50
• Assists: 18
• Turnovers: 16
• Bench points: 26
• Fastbreak points: 4

Bobcats

• Field-goal percentage: 47.4% (37-78)
• Three-point percentage: 38.5% (5-13)
• Rebounds: 44
• Assists: 28
• Turnovers: 15
• Bench points: 21
• Fastbreak points: 15

Where Did the Scoring Go?

There was a time earlier this season when the Warriors were among the top scoring teams in the league. Now, they’ve dropped out of the top 10, and ranked 11th with 103.5 points per game coming into tonight.

Their offensive struggles continued against the Bobcats. Whenever the Warriors are unable to run (only five fastbreak points) or unable to shoot threes (4-of-20), the odds of winning are usually not in their favor.

Every single Warrior who is counted upon for offense struggled tonight. David Lee had his worst game in a while, with just eight points and three rebounds on 3-of-13 shooting. Andre Iguodala looked completely lost in the halfcourt set, settling for threes and not creating plays. Klay Thompson scored a bunch of points in garbage time, but his struggles shooting the ball are becoming a recurring issue. Even Curry, with his team-leading 17 points and 11 assists, shot just 1-of-7 from beyond-the-arc.

O’Neal Returns

The only positive to take away from this game was the return of Jermaine O’Neal, who had missed the last seven weeks recovering from wrist surgery. O’Neal played 17 minutes and performed well for his first game back: nine points and eight rebounds.

Good to Know (or maybe not)

– Here’s evidence, and it’s ugly:

– The Warriors have lost five of their last seven home games. Ironically, those two wins came against the Clippers and Blazers, two of the top four teams in the West.

The losses? Denver, Indiana, Minnesota, Washington, and now Charlotte. It’s even more depressing to think that the Warriors should easily be 6-1 during those games, having beaten Los Angeles and Portland, and counting the loss to Indiana.

They are either playing down to their opponents, or this is a sign of something larger.

What’s on Tap

The Warriors take on the Bulls on Thursday at home at 7:30 PST.