Back to the future: Warriors vs. Magic

The Golden State Warriors welcomed Draymond Green back into the fold on Friday, then promptly fell behind the Orlando Magic by 17 points, then immediately erased that deficit and replaced it with a 13-point lead, then proceeded to blow that lead and lose 124-120.

Yikes.

So how did they do with their pregame keys to victory? Let’s find out by revisiting the keys from the preview.

Offensive discipline

The key: Match the offensive discipline of Orlando, which ranks 10th in turnover percentage.

The outcome: Truthfully, the Warriors did pretty decently here. It just really doesn’t feel like it, because they made a few costly errors and mistakes at the end of the game. Or as coach Steve Kerr said, “It seemed to me like the last five minutes it was one pass and a shot. We stopped doing what got us into the game.”

But the Warriors were disciplined for much of the game, and committed just 13 turnovers — the exact same number as Orlando.

Grading the key: 6 out of 10.

D up

The key: Put the clamps on Orlando’s offense from the opening tip.

The outcome: The Magic came out of the gate firing. They had 20 points before we were even five minutes into the contest, and finished the opening frame with 37 points.

Before the game, Kerr said he expected the team to come out slow, as their travel schedule was not what it would have been in a normal year. He ended up being correct.

Grading the key: 1.5 out of 10.

Dish the ball

The key: Record at least 25 assists.

The outcome: The Warriors had 37 assists, which is an awesome number. Steph Curry and Draymond Green combined for 20 of those, with Juan Toscano-Anderson and Eric Paschall both having 4.

The ball was moving, and it was a lot of fun to watch.

Grading the key: 9.5 out of 10.

Strong individual offensive games

The key: Get a few strong individual offensive performances.

The outcome: It doesn’t help that the team’s lone offensive superstar, Curry, had a rare second straight inefficient game. Curry had 29 points, but took as many shots as he had points.

Kelly Oubre Jr. pitched in with a nice offensive game, shooting 10-for-18 for 26 points. Andrew Wiggins had 16 points on 7-for-15 shooting, and both Damion Lee and Mychal Mulder had efficient 10-pieces.

The Warriors didn’t do anything special here, but they did all right.

Grading the key: 5.5 out of 10.

Ultimately, it wasn’t enough for a three-game winning streak. On to the next one.