3. Early turnovers
The start of this game was ugly for both teams. A helter-skelter pace led to many goofy plays and a number of sloppy turnovers. No team even scored for the first three minutes of this contest.
Golden State received the bulk of the punishment, seeing their frontcourt turn the ball over a total of four times in just four minutes. In the play below, we see DeMarcus Cousins come up with a steal, only to force the action and dribble into a double-team, coughing the ball up almost as quick as he stole it.
Next, we once again see Cousins attempting to do too much. When a slip pass gets Cousins rolling to the hoop in a 2-on-1 scenario, there is no reason for him to not either shoot the ball himself or dump it to Andre Iguodala on the baseline. Instead, an errant pass to the middle of the paint is intercepted.
Already we have seen Cousins turn the ball over twice for seemingly no reason. Sadly, it’s only going to get worse for Boogie as he is out of control on this spin move and hands the Raptors defense an easy steal for the third time in just two minutes.
It doesn’t take a genius to tell you that these plays all contributed to a slow start for the Dubs. In a roaring Oracle Arena that was waiting to explode at the start of this game, Cousins’ did a fantastic job of sucking the energy out of the building.