Pathetic. This has been the image of the Warriors in an unmitigated defeat, absolutely historic and strangely embarrassing for a team that has been a few years in which it has formed one of the greatest dynasties in history. And that, of course, he also wants to extend that moment that ended a couple of years ago (the defeat against the Raptors in the Finals, the fifth in a row, with three rings in their showcases) with a new golden brooch. For now, they will have to wait a little longer, since the 3-1 and the match-ball favorable that they had has been a mere mirage and the home arbitration that boosted them in the last game has not been the protagonist in this one. We have experienced one of those encounters that leave a mark, a certain pain. An extraordinary beating to a team that should not receive it this way. A dominance of the Grizzlies that makes it 3-2 and allows them to dream, even though the rival they have met today will be radically different tomorrow.
Never has a team trying to avoid elimination won by such a margin, and never have the Warriors been blown away like this or dropped by 55 points in a playoff game. And there is not much more to tell about a game that lasted 10 minutes, when the visitors, coached by recent Kings signing Mike Brown (Steve Kerr is still out due to coronavirus) got to 1 (29-28) and briefly cut off the Grizzlies’ initial verve. That’s as far as they got: an incontestable 9-0 run imposed the first punishment, 38 points received in the first quarter, a figure that went to 39 in the second, when the result was already 77-50. The third quarter was the worst: 42-17 partial and a difference that shot up to 55 maximum points, just 3 points off the all-time high in playoff history. At the end of said quarter, the result was 112-67. And in the last one, the only thing that was done was to use the remaining minutes so that the Grizzlies were cheered by the public and the second unit of both teams came out on the track.
Jaren Jackson, Demond Bane and Tyus Jones each went for 21 points apiece and a combined 12-for-19 from 3-point range, which was 18-for-41 for the entire team. The Grizzlies attempted 19 more shots than the Warriors (99 to 80), overwhelmed their rivals on the rebound (55 to 37), distributed up to 37 assists (22 for Golden State) and caused up to 22 turnovers. Up to seven local players equaled or exceeded double digits in scoring, Bane went to a +46 on the court as a personal record, Jones distributed 9 assists, Steve Adams grabbed 13 rebounds and all the players played at least 12 minutes of the game. All this without Ja Morant, who is still out after his knee injury in the third round of the series. This time, fortunately, there were no arbitration problems, controversies or controversies. The huge number of points difference between both teams did not give rise to it. A respite that does not hurt anyone.
Of the Warriors there is nothing to highlight. No player played more than 25 minutes and there were 17 points from Jonathan Kuminga, 19 from Klay Thompson and 15 from Stephen Curry, to which they put Whoop that trick, a rap song, at the end of the game in response to the tactic that Curry said they were going to have in the previous one. Draymond Green displayed his usual behavior to respond to the song (initially requested by Jaren Jackson) with the same dance practiced by the Grizzlies cheerleaders. And Curry laughed quietly. Green himself (5+7+5 in the match, but with 5 turnovers) said at a press conference that one should not hesitate only when things were going uphill. Anyway, a merely anecdotal fact that does not sum up at all what the Warriors did in the fifth game against the Grizzlies. Since, as much as they want to show off their chests, the performance has been objectively embarrassing.
