Scoring optional; humiliation mandatory

Utterly brutal.

Two-and-a-half months ago, back on November 6, the Golden State Warriors headed to New England to visit the defending-champion Boston Celtics. The newish-look Warriors were rolling, carrying a 6-1 record into the matchup. The same-look Celtics were, less surprisingly, also rolling, holding a 7-1 record.

Golden State won the game 118-112. It felt like a statement game. The Dubs, off to such a hot start, had kept it going by beating the consensus best team in the NBA on the road. It was an announcement that the Warriors intended to be contenders this year. Buddy Hield labeled the game “a statement.” After the game, our own Joe Viray wrote that, “When push came to shove and the Celtics were asking questions of the Warriors’ true contender status, they were able to pass with flying colors.”

The best laid plans, or something.

Golden State kept those vibes running for a while, peaking at 12-3 a few weeks later. I don’t need to relive what has happened in the two months since. The Warriors have gone an utterly-dismal 9-18 since, a winning percentage that, if held over the course of the season, would be better than just six NBA teams. They’ve had just two winning streaks during that time, and none longer than two games.

Monday offered a chance to change some of that. Fresh off of wins over the Minnesota Timberwolves and Washington Wizards, the Dubs welcomed the Celtics into town in a rematch of the 2022 NBA Finals. It was a chance for their first three-game winning streak since November 15. It was their chance to gain some momentum. And most importantly, it was their chance to prove against a title contender that they still have that upside in them somewhere.

Test emphatically failed.

The Celtics jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead, and the vibes were bad. And then the Warriors answered with eight straight points of their own, and suddenly the vibes were good. The defensive effort was strong, with the Warriors working very hard. They were swarming Boston’s ball-handlers, attacking the glass on both ends of the court with extreme aggression, and diving for loose balls. It was intense, and a Steph Curry three with seven minutes left gave the Dubs the lead.

But as soon as Curry hit the bench at the end of the first quarter, the offense fell asleep and then fell apart. The Warriors couldn’t get good looks, and couldn’t make what few good looks they got, or any bad ones. With 5:20 remaining in the quarter, Kevon Looney nailed a mid-range jumper to give the Dubs a 15-13 lead. And then they didn’t make another field goal until Looney made a put-back more than two minutes into the second quarter. In all, they went exactly 10 minutes with just one field goal made, yet somehow only trailed by 11 points due to their excellent defense.

But the defense could only hold for so long. Eventually it folded, with the offense never picking up. The deficit ballooned to 19 points, and when the halftime buzzer rang, it was 54-39 Boston. The Warriors, as cold as they’ve been all year, had shot a miserable 3-for-24 on threes.

There would be no push in the third quarter. It took just three minutes for Boston to push the lead to 23 points, forcing a last-attempt timeout by Steve Kerr. It did nothing but serve as the meat between the sandwich of an 11-0 Celtics run that pushed the lead to 27 points. As we neared the halfway mark, the lead was an even 30, representing a 55-28 Boston run since the middle of the first quarter.

And that was it. The Dubs showed a few minutes of life that Boston extinguished with back-to-back threes, and Kerr waived the white flag well before the third quarter ended, resting Curry and the rest of the core players, an bringing in the seldom-used subs.

The final result? A brutal and embarrassing 125-85 loss, and a harsh reminder as to where the Warriors currently stand in the NBA’s hierarchy.