No excuses for Golden State Warriors Game 5 blunder

The Golden State Warriors were gifted an opportunity to advance to the Western Conference Finals. You could say it was served to them on a golden platter.

Instead, the Dubs delivered perhaps their worst performance of the season in a loss that no one should be proud of.

The Golden State Warriors have no excuses for their Game 5 performance. All they can do is simply play better, and harder, on Friday.

Memphis led the game wire to wire, at teams leading by as much as 55 points at one point and maintaining a steady 30-point lead for pretty much the entire night.

With their leading scorer and playmaker, Ja Morant, on the bench — how did the Grizzlies manage to pull this off?

A few things went their way, to say the least.

Memphis cracked open timely performances from just about everyone they needed on Wednesday. Desmond Bane sprung to life, scoring 21 points on 4-of-6 shooting from the 3-point line.

Bane was not the only one to net 21 points, as Tyus Jones and Jaren Jackson Jr. chipped in with the same output. Jones, in particular, was in complete control with 9 assists and 0 turnovers.

Four separate Grizzlies scored in double-digits while they shot 43% from deep as a unit. They outrebounded the Dubs 55 to 37 and dominated the game in every single facet.

What about the Warriors?

Jordan Poole came crashing down to earth after a strong start in the series, shooting just 1-of-6 in Game 5 to go with 4 turnovers. Andrew Wiggins followed suit with a 2-of-6 shooting line.

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson looked far from their usual selves. Klay led the team in scoring but was an overall minus-45 in his 25 minutes of playing time… yikes.

There really isn’t much to say here other than the Warriors should feel ashamed of themselves. A pitiful lack of effort followed by an embarrassing lack of attention to detail led to one of the worst losses in franchise history.

A chance to win the series will come again on Friday.