Warriors Can't Complete Comeback in 116-114 Loss to Knicks

The Golden State Warriors scrapped back from a double digit deficit only to come up short vs. the visiting New York Knicks

After falling behind the visiting New York Knicks by as many as 13 points in the fourth quarter, the Golden State Warriors had a chance.

With just over six seconds to play, trailing by just two, Klay Thompson found a clean look at the basket, rising up from 13 feet on the right elbow. But as his shot bounced off the rim and fell to the floor, so did Golden State’s comeback effort.

“The guys did a great job of fighting back. They gave us a chance,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. ”I’m disappointed we lost but I’m proud of our guys. I thought it was a hell of a fight.”

Losing 116-114 at Chase Center Thursday night, the Warriors dropped their second game in a row after rattling off a season-best nine-straight before Wednesday. Stumped by a 28-point effort from Julius Randle and 45 points from the Knicks bench, Golden State now falls four games behind the Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference Standings.

Warriors starting point guard led all scorers with 35 points while Thompson and rookie forward Jonathan Kuminga chipped in with 17 points each.

Part of the reason for the Warriors’ struggles against New York was the fact that they were heavily outrebounded. Snagging 13 less boards than the Knicks, Golden State also gave up 16 offensive rebounds.

According to Kerr, this has been a common problem since Draymond Green, who has missed the last month with a back injury, began to miss time.

“Draymond is a game-changer for us,” Kerr said. “We are who we are. We’re a small team [without Draymond].”

In addition to the poor rebounding effort, which also contributed to the Warriors’ 111-85 beatdown at the hands of the Utah Jazz, Golden State’s three-point shooting appeared to be off.

Hitting just 15 of the 45 triples they attempted, the Warriors left the long-ball short more often than not. That, according to Kerr, was the product of a challenging back-to-back schedule coming from Salt Lake City, UT.

“It’s really difficult to win in Utah and then play the next night,” Kerr said. “I’m not worried about our team. I’m disappointed we couldn’t win tonight but I feel good about where we are.”

In spite of the multitude of things working against the Warriors Thursday night, the second-best team in the Western Conference was still able to give itself an opportunity to tie — if not win — the game in its fleeting seconds.

With what Kerr called a “designed” play to get Thompson the ball with 6.7 seconds to play in the game, Chase Center watched as the Washington State product cleared enough space to find a solid shot at the rim.

“Oh yeah," Thompson replied when asked if he liked the shot. "It was a great look. Unfortunately it was long."