Watch: Jazz steal the game as Warriors suffer epic collapse yet again
To win their third road game, the Warriors just had to hold onto the ball. They failed.
With 6.9 seconds left, the Warriors had the ball and led 123-122. Utah was out of timeouts, so Golden State simply needed to get the ball in and make its free throws. But when they inbounded to Jordan Poole, Utah's Nickeil Alexander-Walker knocked the ball out of his hands. Malik Beasley took the loose ball up court and found Simone Fontecchio for the game-winning dunk.
That wasn't the only inbounds failure for the Warriors, who have lost road games in a stunning variety of ways this season. They blew three different double-digit leads to lose in Orlando. They blew a four-point lead in the final minute in Charlotte and lost in overtime. They lost in Dallas when Klay Thompson missed a wide-open three-pointer at the buzzer. And they lost in Phoenix despite Steph Curry scoring 50.
The Warriors had no Curry or Draymond Green, but they still had the game seemingly in command before errors started piling up. Up three points with 24.9 seconds left, Klay Thompson lost the ball in nearly the same spot as Poole, after Kelly Olynyk stole the ball with some extremely physical defense.
Thompson blocked that three, but after last year's free-throw percentage leader Jordan Poole split two free throws, Thompson inexplicably wandered away from Malik Beasley on defense. Beasley cut the lead to one with a three, something head coach Steve Kerr told reporters "can't happen."
While the Warriors were missing three starters, the young players weren't the problem. Jonathan Kuminga blocked Jordan Clarkson late, which made Clarkson so mad he committed a flagrant-two foul and was ejected.
The Warriors will have to figure out their road worries — and soon. A six-game road trip starts next Tuesday.
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