Within the first three and a half minutes of the second half Thursday night, Steph Curry’s finger roll gave the Warriors the lead back from the Milwaukee Bucks.
A few minutes later, the Warriors appeared headed for another dominant third quarter when Curry scored six consecutive eye-popping points to give the Warriors a four-point lead.
But a first was about to happen for the Warriors in a stretch of the game that led to their eventual 120-110 loss at Fiserv Forum. The Warriors, for the first time this season, were outscored by one point in the third quarter.
A 3-pointer from Bucks guard Cole Anthony, followed by one from Buddy Hield in return, put the Warriors ahead 79-74 at the 5:43 mark of the third quarter. The Warriors wouldn’t score again until Jimmy Butler’s three cut their deficit to five points with 31.7 seconds left in the quarter. They went more than five minutes without a basket and the Bucks went past them on the scoreboard.
For good. The Warriors never led again after Hield’s three halfway through the third. This is what happened in a game-defining 12-0 Bucks run that could have been even worse.
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On the Warriors’ first offensive possession after Hield’s three, the ball moved but the offense was stagnant. Jonathan Kuminga had to take a three from the right wing and overshot his mark for an air ball and a shot clock violation, which was their first turnover of the sequence. Kuminga then had his second straight air ball turnover the next time the Warriors had possession.
Driving to the basket, Kuminga stumbled while spinning off Gary Trent Jr. and his layup went over the hoop and into his own hands. Kuminga was convinced Kyle Kuzma got a piece of his shot and put it back in for a presumed two points. But the refs said otherwise and called Kuminga for traveling.
The Warriors actually were lucky the Bucks went cold after Anthony’s three, going four straight trips down the court without scoring until back-to-back threes gave them the lead back with three and a half minutes to go in the quarter. The Bucks opened the door for a Warriors win. Golden State must not have gotten the memo.
There was Butler’s out-of-control layup attempt off the side of the backboard looking for a foul, and his missed runner that went too hard off the glass in back-to-back possessions. Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody and Al Horford all missed open threes during the span on a night where they combined to go 2 of 10 from 3-point range. Moody, in fact, missed two threes in the Warriors’ scoring drought, and Horford also air-balled a bunny with the much-smaller Anthony on him. He later was called for a moving screen, too.
Defensively during that period, the Warriors watched Anthony and Ryan Rollins each blow by them to the rim. The Warriors couldn’t capitalize on the Bucks’ offense hitting some bumps and went 0 of 10 before Butler’s three late in the quarter. Multiple missed layups and air balls were accompanied by three turnovers and going 0 of 5 beyond the arc on a bad night shooting from downtown.
Butler raced down the court and maneuvered his way to the free-throw line in the final two seconds of the quarter. He made his two free throws after an odd Bobby Portis lane violation to make it a three-point game. The Warriors twice made it a one-point game in the first four and a half minutes of the fourth but never grabbed the lead back.
The Bucks outscored the Warriors 27-26 in the third quarter. The Warriors outrebounded the Bucks by two in the third, but also made two fewer threes and turned the ball over two more times. Golden State previously was a plus-50 in the third through their first five games.
Asked if there was anything coach Steve Kerr did like from his team with the final question of his postgame press conference, he took a deep breath before saying, “No, it was not our finest hour. We did not play well, at all. There were some good individual plays, but we didn’t connect as a group.”
Right when the Warriors could have grown their lead against the Giannis Antetokounmpo-less Bucks, the game slipped away from their reach in the part they had been dominating the most.