Warriors’ season-best winning streak ends in a dud vs. Utah Jazz

SALT LAKE CITY — Maybe it was the altitude. Maybe the Warriors were just due for one of those nights. Either way, the team that had won its past nine looked discombobulated all night Wednesday against the Utah Jazz. It didn’t take until the final buzzer to know the streak wouldn’t reach 10. When the horn mercifully sounded, the final tally was 111-85, Golden State’s most lopsided loss of the season.

Initially it appeared as though the Warriors (41-14) would have no problem extending their season-best stretch of basketball to double digits. The Jazz (33-21) were playing without all-NBA defender Rudy Gobert, as well as key reserve Rudy Gay and hadn’t yet gotten their returns from a trade deadline move earlier in the day. Golden State raced out to a 13-0 lead with everyone but Steph Curry contributing to the scoring column.

But the opening quarter hadn’t even come to a close by the time the early advantage had evaporated. After the 13-0 start, the Jazz outscored the Warriors 111-72. Utah cemented its lead with a 34-9 run that started less than 4 minutes out of intermission and extended into the fourth quarter. The Warriors managed only eight baskets from the field from that point on — more than 20 minutes of game time.

“I feel like we had some spurts during the game where we were a little flat,” said Juan Toscano-Anderson. “But the game is a game of runs. At some point you have to stop the bleeding. I don’t think we did a good job of that.”

To beat a team like the Jazz — the toughest rim defenders in the NBA, even absent Gobert — the Warriors need to be able to hit from long range. It was a bad night to shoot 16 of 43 (37.2%) from 3-point range. Utah locked down the paint with nine blocks — seven by Hassan Whiteside, who tormented the Warriors all night — and numerous other altered shots.

“I thought Whiteside dominated the game,” coach Steve Kerr said. “I didn’t think we attacked in a very intelligent manner in the first half. We kept trying to score over the top of them and you’re not going to do that. Six blocks before halftime and every one seemed to turn into a layup at the other end.”

The Warriors badly missed the sharpshooting of Klay Thompson, who sat out the first night of their set of back-to-back games, and the post presence and facilitating ability of Draymond Green. Jordan Poole started in place of Thompson and paced the Warriors with 18 points, followed by 16 from Curry and 13 from Andrew Wiggins. Jonathan Kuminga provided 12 points and Juan Toscano-Anderson added 11, but the Warriors got few contributions from the rest of their reserves.

Golden State made only 5 of its 14 attempts from inside the circle (35.7%), almost half the rate of the league average from close range (64.6%). The Jazz dominated the Warriors inside the paint to the tune of a 48-20 differential.

Whiteside’s 17 rebounds helped Utah own the boards, 61-46.

It didn’t help that while the Jazz got scoring contributions up and down their roster — 10 players with at least 6 points — the Warriors essentially carried dead weight at the end of their bench.