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SAN FRANCISCO — Brandin Podziemski converted a contested layup, the Grizzlies called timeout and the Warriors’ fifth-year guard amped up the crowd as he retreated to his bench.
Podziemski 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.
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, allowing the Grizzlies to mount a 17-0 run and treating their fans to a 111-108 loss in their home opener.
Less than 24 hours later, 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.
That only made the win slipping out of their hands sting all the more.
“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.”
Golden State fell behind by as many as 13 points in the first half as the Warriors struggled to manufacture offense without Curry or to contain Grizzlies rookie Cameron Boozer, who outclassed fellow first-rounder Yaxel Lendeborg in their first NBA matchup.
The last of Boozer’s 25 points came on a turnaround over Brandin Podziemski with 20 seconds to play that gave the Grizzlies their first lead since late in the third quarter, 108-106. Draymond Green was called for his third illegal screen of the game, and Ty Jerome was able to drive uncontested for a layup to finish off his 28-point night — as well as the Warriors’ collapse.
After their 128-105 loss to the Lakers on opening night, Golden State is 0-2 for the first time since 2020-21. That’s two games with a healthy Curry they won’t get back.
“There’s losses, and there’s ways that you lose like tonight that sting a little bit more,” Curry said. “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.”
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 coach Steve 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.”
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,” Kerr 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.”
Kerr, however, took a more measured stance than Curry.
“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.”