SAN FRANCISCO — Brandin Podziemski converted a contested layup, Grizzlies coach Tuomas Iisalo called timeout and the Warriors’ fourth-year guard amped up the crowd as he retreated to his bench.
Podziemski’s bucket put Golden State up 11 with 5:19 to play, and De’Anthony Melton drained a 3 96 seconds later to extend the lead to a dozen with less than 4 minutes left in regulation.
Then, in the words of Steph Curry, “pretty much everything went wrong.”
Curry and the rest of the Warriors were still processing their epic fourth-quarter collapse Friday night as they boarded the bus to take them to the airport. Golden State missed its final nine attempts from the field, allowed the Grizzlies to mount a 17-0 run and treated 18,064 fans to a devastating 111-108 loss in its first game inside Chase Center this season.
“There’s losses,” Curry said, “and there’s ways that you lose like tonight that sting a little bit more.”
In less than 24 hours, the Warriors will have to do it all again in Phoenix, still in search of their first win.
And will likely have to do so without Curry, who said he will “probably not” suit up against the Suns in the second half of the first back-to-back of the season as the Warriors try to manage his workload.
Podziemski, who missed their season opener after tweaking his back and left briefly after taking a hard fall in the first quarter, also said he will sit out the back end of the back-to-back.
Golden State will have to find a way to beat the Suns without its two leading scorers, lest risk getting off to its worst start since losing the first six games of the 2007-08 season. Curry led the way with 24 points, but it was Podziemski who took the most shots (17) while matching Yaxel Lendeborg with 18.
“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Curry said, “considering we played really solid, especially in that second half, to give ourselves a lead and be in control of the game for as long as we did.”
The Warriors fell behind by as many as 13 points in the first half as they struggled to manufacture offense without Curry or to contain Grizzlies rookie Cameron Boozer, who outclassed Lendeborg in the first NBA clash of the former college rivals and first-round picks.
The last of Boozer’s 25 points came on a spinning shot in the lane over Podziemski with 20 seconds to play that gave the Grizzlies their first lead since late in the third quarter, 108-106. On the Warriors’ ensuing trip down the floor, Draymond Green was called for an illegal screen — his third of the game — and Ty Jerome was able to drive uncontested for a layup to finish off his 28-point night as the Warriors’ collapse.
Kerr was given a technical for arguing Green’s illegal screen on Jerome that gave up the ball on the Warriors’ final possession. Kerr said it was a “shocking” call by the referees.
“We probably had six illegal screens tonight, and those were really tough because the flopping that was happening on every single one,” he said. “[It] looked like guys were going down like they’ve been hit by a car or something. …
“All those illegal screens really hurt us.”
A few possessions earlier, Podziemski and Melton collided while going after a loose ball that Podziemski had poked free. It ended up in the hands of a Memphis player.
It was, as Kerr said, one of “like eight different things [that] had to happen.”
“I think if any one of those eight doesn’t happen, we win the game. It was just an avalanche.”
After their 127-105 loss to the Lakers on opening night, the Warriors are 0-2 for the first time since 2020-21. That’s two games with a healthy Curry they won’t get back.
“Everybody says there’s another game tomorrow,” Curry said. “But the idea of how important every game is for us … and the fact that we gave one away like this, you might lose a little sleep over it.”
Kerr, however, took a more measured stance.
“There’s 80 [more] games. We’ve lost a couple. We’ll bounce back,” he said. “You don’t think, ‘Does this sting more than any other game?’ You just move on.”
