SAN FRANCISCO – Playing their final game before the trade deadline, with half the roster seemingly involved in trade talks or rumored exchanges, the Warriors put that aside to focus on their game against the visiting 76ers at Chase Center on Tuesday.
In what could have been his last game with the Warriors, Draymond Green scored six points and grabbed seven rebounds as Golden State lost 113-94.
Pat Spencer scored 13 and De’Anthony Melton and Quinten Post scored exactly 10 each off the bench for Golden State, while Gui Santos (13) and Moses Moody (12) added double figures. VJ Edgecombe top scored with 25 as 8 for 76 scored in double figures.
Steph Curry was out with a sore knee, and Kerr said his condition remains day-to-day. Joining him on the injury report was Jonathan Kuminga, who has missed the last five games due to a bone injury in his right knee.
Kerr dropped a reshuffled lineup of Gui Santos, Green, Moses Moody and Al Horford and guard Brandin Podziemski. For a while, they stayed within striking distance of a Sixers team that was missing Joel Embiid (injury managers) and Paul George (suspended for drug use).
After falling behind 53-38 in the second quarter, Buddy Hield led a surge that saw the Warriors trail 58-57 at halftime. But even without their two best players, the Sixers had the power to fire up the Warriors sans Curry, and pulled out the win.
The Warriors (27-24) will play in Phoenix on Thursday.
Three ball equals … for a while
Even though Curry missed the game, the long ball was a big part of the Warriors’ strategy against the 76ers. Of their 20 shots in the first quarter, 15 of the Warriors’ attempts came from behind the arc.
They made eight of these, helping Golden State take a 32-31 lead. In the second quarter, the volume dropped as the team made 3 of 8 from behind the line. The team recovered in the second half, finishing the third quarter 14 from long range.
The Warriors finished the night 19 of 48 from three-point range.
Bahamian buckets
Tuesday’s game saw the future and future of Bahamas basketball face off for the second time this season. Buddy Hield, the senior national team official, came off the bench to score nine points, showing some good dribble-dribble moves even though he is only known as a shooter.
Perhaps he should have shown off against his protégé Edgecombe, a rookie with limitless athletic ability and All-Star potential. The first-year guard at Baylor scored 25 points, taking a page out of Hield’s book by hitting multiple pullup jumpers over contests.
“I knew that once he got to the NBA, when he found that space and was surrounded by great players, he was going to be fine,” Hield told the Bay Area News Group in December.
A late bus for the 76ers
With the Pro Bowl taking place at the Moscone Center, Super Bowl week traffic spared no one: not San Franciscans, East Bay natives trying to get home, or visiting NBA teams from the East Coast.
The second 76ers bus arrived at the Chase Center 75 minutes before tipoff, a vehicle among many in Super Bowl traffic. After finally arriving on the field, 76ers coach Nick Nurse made no excuses.
“There’s always a series of things we’re dealing with, so I did something on the bus. I didn’t go to my office first, I had to come straight here,” said the nurse before the game. “There’s another big change about it too. The biggest one, I’ve been through this a hundred times so I hope the players will deal with it.”
