Warriors Collapse in Home Opener, Fall to 0-2

The Golden State Warriors opened their home schedule with a stunning collapse, losing 111-108 to the Memphis Grizzlies after holding a 12-point lead with under four minutes remaining. The defeat dropped the Warriors to 0-2 on the season, mirroring their start in the 2020-21 campaign.

Brandin Podziemski’s layup extended Golden State's advantage to 11 points with 5:19 left in the game. A subsequent three-pointer by De’Anthony Melton pushed the lead to 12 with less than four minutes to play. However, the Warriors then missed their final nine field goal attempts, allowing the Grizzlies to close the game on a 17-0 run.

“Pretty much everything went wrong,” said Warriors guard Steph Curry, who expressed that the way the game slipped away would likely cause players to “lose sleep.”

During the pivotal final stretch, a loose ball ricocheted off Warriors players Brandin Podziemski and De’Anthony Melton and was recovered by Memphis. Later, Draymond Green was called for his third illegal screen of the game on a play involving Ty Jerome, which resulted in Jerome driving for the game-tying and go-ahead layups.

Coach Steve Kerr described the sequence of events as an “avalanche,” suggesting that “like eight different things” had to occur for the Grizzlies to come back. Kerr also took issue with the officiating, particularly the illegal screen call on Green, which he termed “shocking” and questioned the perceived flopping that led to the calls.

"All those illegal screens really hurt us," Kerr stated.

The Warriors struggled offensively early in the game, falling behind by as many as 13 points in the first half. Grizzlies rookie Cameron Boozer outplayed fellow first-round pick Yaxel Lendeborg, scoring 25 points, including the go-ahead basket with 20 seconds left.

Curry suggested he would likely sit out the next game, a road contest against the Phoenix Suns, as the team manages his workload in the second half of their first back-to-back of the season.

"There’s losses, and there’s ways that you lose like tonight that sting a little bit more," Curry reflected. "Everybody says there’s another game tomorrow. 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."

Despite the frustrating loss, Kerr urged his team to move forward. “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.”