Golden State struggled with their shooting as the home side disrupted their normally fluid offense and stormed home in the back end of the fourth quarter to end the Warriors’ streak.
Advertisement
Golden State trailed by double digits for much of the night and was down by one point a couple of times.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock inside Milwaukee’s BMO Harris Bradley Center on Saturday night, the cameras cut to reigning NBA MVP Stephen Curry, who had a bemused, nearly bewildered look on his face. The Bucks pulled away from the Warriors early, leading by a dozen in the first quarter.
Giddy Bucks fans at the packed Bradley Center erupted with cheers after the final buzzer. The champs who aren’t used to losing showed no signs of remorse and shook hands with their opponents after.
It’s even more remarkable that the Warriors have achieved all they have with Luke Walton manning the sidelines in place of head coach Steve Kerr, who is still not fully recovered from offseason back surgery. “That’s why it is so hard to do what these guys have done so far”.
The Warriors are now a not-too-shabby 24-1 for the season. While the winning streak was certainly fun while it lasted, the pressure is finally off. Golden State hosts the Phoenix Suns (10-14) on Wednesday in Oakland.
That put them just five short of the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers’ all-time record of 33 – but as on that occasion, the Bucks intervened to put a stop to the run.
That tied the Warriors for the second-longest winning streak in league history at 27, but separating themselves from that mark was perhaps their toughest challenge yet.
It was the way they lost that was a little surprising.
Michael Carter-Williams did the job for the Bucks on both the offensive and defensive ends.
Milwaukee, bottom of the Central Division, was an unlikely candidate to end Golden State’s winning run, but got an all-round effort from the team, led by 28 points from Greg Monroe. “When we’re growing up, we all wanted to be like Mike, and this younger generation will see Steph playing at a very high level, not just one year, but hopefully for the next five or six years”.
The Warriors were coming off a double-overtime game in Boston the night before and they couldn’t match the home team’s energy. They’ll have Sunday and Monday off before beginning a four-games-in-six-days trip that includes a visit to Golden State on Friday.
“For us, we didn’t talk about the streak”, said Kidd. Monroe was 11 of 16, including a three-point play with 2 minutes, 51 seconds left for a 12-point lead.
“But our goal was always to get better each and every time we get on the floor, whether that’s practice or whether that is in the game”.
Advertisement
“You can kind of appreciate what we were able to accomplish”, Curry said.
