2 Reasons Revealed for Warriors' Terrible Loss to Jazz

The Golden State Warriors (32-32) suffered their worst loss of the season Monday, falling 119-116 to a Utah Jazz team playing without four of their five best players.

Their best healthy player, Keyonte George, did not play the fourth quarter, yet the Jazz (20-45) still held on.

De'Anthony Melton had 22 points to pace the Warriors, who were playing without Stephen Curry, Kristaps Porzingis, Moses Moody and Al Horford.

Brice Sensabaugh had a team-high 21 points, while Kyle Filipowski filled up the stat sheet with 19 points, 15 rebounds, five assists, two steals and one block.

Here are the two main reasons the Warriors lost Monday's game.

The Primary Reason for the Loss Was Shot Selection

The Warriors took 99 field-goal attempts and 52 (!) of them were threes.

In most NBA games, that wouldn't necessarily be a terrible strategy. But against this version of the Jazz, it's inexcusable.

Utah has been playing without Walker Kessler for most of the season. It traded for Jaren Jackson Jr., but he's out for the season. Its next best interior defender, Jusuf Nurkic, has been out since Feb. 12.

Since that date, here are the Jazz's ranks in several key defensive categories entering Monday:

Stat	Rank
Defensive Rating	25th
Opponent FG%	27th
Rebound Percentage	28th
Opponent FG% within 5 Feet	30th

That last stat is the key. Opponents were shooting 72.3 percent within five feet against the Jazz since Feb. 12 entering Monday.

And it makes sense. The Jazz don't have a healthy player who is a plus rim protector. And they give up a lot of drives because their young players make a lot of mistakes guarding on the perimeter.

It should have been a layup line, but the Warriors repeatedly took the first available three, and they got burned for it.

Of course part of the issue is Golden State's roster is lacking talented ball-handlers who can consistently get to the rim and finish. With that said, Gui Santos made it look easy a few times, but the Warriors didn't have the discipline to keep getting Santos the ball in positions to attack the rim.

The Warriors had no business taking more threes than twos, and that indirectly led to the Jazz winning the rebound battle (50-46) and the topic of the next subhead.

The Secondary Reason Was Losing the Free-Throw Battle

The Jazz went 27-of-29 from the line, while the Warriors went 14-of-21.

First off, the Warriors should not be finishing a game against this Jazz team with eight fewer free-throw attempts.

But equally disappointing is the Warriors missed six free throws in the fourth quarter. Brandin Podziemski missed all four.

Entering Monday, the Jazz had the second-highest opponent free-throw rate in the league. Had the Warriors played this game with a mindset of attacking the rim more, they would have been rewarded with more free-throw attempts and probably won the game.

Both teams were short-handed, particularly in the frontcourt. The Jazz took advantage of that much better than the Warriors did.

Keep in mind that the Jazz had lost eight of nine coming in and are basically tanking to ensure they keep their top-eight-protected 2026 first-round pick.

Steve Kerr and the Warriors players should have had a better game plan and found a way to win this game.