Takeaways from Warriors' Loss to Clippers: Kerr Right to Get Thrown Out

The Golden State Warriors (19-18) fell apart offensively on Monday, having an eight-minute field-goal drought en route to a 103-102 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers (13-22) at Intuit Dome.

Kawhi Leonard had a team-high 24 points, and Kobe Sanders had a career-high 20.

Stephen Curry had a rough shooting night, scoring 27 points on 9-of-23 shooting before fouling out with under a minute to go. Jimmy Butler missed a potential game-winning jumper in the final moments.

Here are three takeaways from Monday's game.

Refs Have a Terrible Game

This is the first time and perhaps the last time I'll focus on the refs for a takeaways piece.

First, Jimmy Butler was fouled in the third quarter, and the Clippers challenged it. The replay showed he got contacted on the arm, but the replay center in Secaucus apparently didn't look at that part of the replay, instead focusing on whether it was a blocking foul.

It's totally embarrassing that a play that gets reviewed by the replay center gets incorrectly overturned.

Then in the fourth quarter, Stephen Curry got fouled on a drive and shot a wild floater hoping to get an and-1. As the ball went through the hoop, the ref called a foul on the ground. I've never seen a ref call a foul so late that takes away a shot that actually went in. Just don't call anything and it's two points for the Warriors. Instead it's a very late foul on the ground, which in fairness to them was the correct call, but I think it deserves mention.

Moments later, Gary Payton II's layup attempt hit the glass before John Collins "blocked" it. Everyone in the arena knew it was goaltending except the three refs apparently. Kerr immediately got two technicals and an ejection for arguing the call.

That was a five-point swing (the Clippers made three free throws on their next possession).

Curry had zero free throws in the first half and was clearly fouled a couple of times, but that's not what I want to focus on. You're not gonna get every call right.

It's the Butler missed replay review call and the missed call on the Payton layup that can't happen.

Warriors Need Another Scorer as Close to Jan. 15 as Possible

In the last 8:04 of the third quarter, the Warriors did not have a field goal.

Woof.

The Warriors have more long droughts than any team in the league. And it comes back to having almost no offensive talent on the roster outside of Curry and Butler.

Of course, the Warriors can't trade Jonathan Kuminga until Jan. 15. It's all but guaranteed they will trade him, but it's possible they won't make a trade right on Jan. 15. If they can't find the right trade at first, they might have to wait until close to the Feb. 5 trade deadline.

But within reason, they need to make the trade as soon as possible.

You can't call yourselves a serious team with Brandin Podziemski as your third-leading scorer (12.3 points per game). On Monday, Curry had 27, Butler had 24 and Payton had 14. No other player had more than six (!).

I've written many times that the Warriors should target Michael Porter Jr. No one would blame them for giving up a little extra to get the deal done.

Possible Silver Lining: Warriors Dominate Turnover Battle

I'm sure no fan wants to see the words "silver lining" after a heartbreaking one-point loss, but it has to be noted that the Warriors had just seven turnovers.

Draymond Green, who at one point was second in the NBA in turnovers per 36 minutes, had just one turnover in 32 minutes. He also had 12 assists. He's been very good in two of his last three games.

Meanwhile, the Warriors forced 20 turnovers.

If they can consistently win the turnover battle, they will win the vast majority of their games. This was a total outlier in which they had 15 more field-goal attempts than their opponent yet made two fewer shots. That's hard to do.

It's even harder to do when you have 20-point advantage in points off turnovers.

There's only one explanation for this game, which is that the Warriors would have won with a mediocre shooting performance, but instead they got an awful one. They were 35-of-92 (38 percent) from the field and 10-of-41 (24 percent) from three. That won't cut it.