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The Golden State Warriors came into Wednesday night’s Game 5 matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies expecting to clinch their spot in the Western Conference Finals. Instead, they received a mauling of a lifetime as the Grizzlies annihilated the Warriors in a 134-95 blowout. The game was never any close, and if there were any positives, it was that the team managed to only lose by 39 points instead of by the 40 or even 50-point deficit that built up during the game.
Here are some of the takeaways from the Warriors postgame pressers:
“We did everything wrong”
The Warriors looked like a team unprepared to play basketball on Wednesday night, let alone clinch a playoff series. In their postgame pressers, the Warriors acknowledged their poor performance but wouldn’t let that get in the way of closing out the series. Acting head coach Mike Brown and the rest of the Warriors players discussed how they must learn from their mistakes during a blowout loss like this, and then put the game behind them to refocus on the bigger picture.
“We did everything wrong.”
— C.J. Holmes ♂️ (@CjHolmes22) May 12, 2022
Stephen Curry on the Warriors’ 39-point loss to the Grizzlies: pic.twitter.com/0dPlwfs4EL
Klay calls tonight's loss "embarrassing." pic.twitter.com/bMPmR2PBL6
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) May 12, 2022
Mike Brown is flushing this game right down the toilet pic.twitter.com/X92MIugRcR
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) May 12, 2022
Mike Brown: “It’s one game. Don’t get discouraged. Don’t get down.”
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) May 12, 2022
Draymond Green on tonight’s loss: “You learn from it, then you flush it.”
— C.J. Holmes ♂️ (@CjHolmes22) May 12, 2022
Left his postgame presser singing whoop that trick.
Turnovers and Rebounding struggles continue
When discussing the actual game, the Warriors mentioned the same two things as the biggest contributors for their Game 5 loss: turnovers and rebounding. Golden State had 22 turnovers to Memphis’ 9 turnovers and were outrebounded 55-37. Turnovers are especially costly against an athletic team like the Grizzlies that loves to score in transition. The Warriors emphasized slowing things down to prevent the Grizzlies from getting into these fast break situations. This also giving them a chance to methodically search for their best shot opportunity against a long and athletic Memphis defense.
Mike Brown: "We have to, HAVE to settle down." He said turnovers snowball and "deflate us" as the game goes along.
— Kerith Burke (@KerithBurke) May 12, 2022
“We’ve had an alertness and an awareness of boxing out early, and we didn’t have that,” Mike Brown says
— Dalton Johnson (@DaltonJ_Johnson) May 12, 2022
The effort simply wasn’t there from the Warriors as a whole on the glass
Stephen Curry: "How we know we can beat this team, what we focus on, we did everything wrong. Turnovers, offensive rebounds fouls."
— Kendra Andrews (@kendra__andrews) May 12, 2022
Quote of the Night
The quotes of the night belong to Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. In the midst of Golden State’s blowout loss, Curry and Green decided to have some fun with the Memphis crowd and explained why they did it here:
Draymond Green on dancing to "Whoop that Trick" late in the game: pic.twitter.com/qZ0jBa5FtD
— Jason Dumas (@JDumasReports) May 12, 2022
"Even when you're getting smacked, you gotta find some fun in it." - Steph on having fun with the Memphis fans pic.twitter.com/JssX1qFHIO
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) May 12, 2022
Recap
Despite the loss, the Warriors still lead this series 3-2. They’ll have another opportunity to finish off the Grizzlies on Friday when the series moves back to the Chase Center for Game 6.
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