Takeaways from Warriors' Loss to Raptors: Turnovers Cost Dubs Another Game

The Golden State Warriors (16-16) gave away a late lead in regulation before getting dominated in overtime en route to a 141-127 loss to the Toronto Raptors (19-14) on Sunday.

Scottie Barnes was the best player on the floor, totaling 23 points, 25 rebounds, 10 assists, three steals, one block and a plus-24 plus/minus.

Stephen Curry had a game-high 39 points, while Immanuel Quickley paced the Raptors with 27.

Here are three takeaways from Sunday's game.

Turnovers Cost the Warriors Another Game

The Warriors led 120-113 after a Curry three-pointer with 1:43 to go. According to ESPN's win probability, they should win 95.5 percent of the time from there.

After a Barnes dunk, the Raptors pressed in the backcourt and forced a Will Richard turnover. That eventually led to an Ingram two-pointer.

Now up just three, Draymond Green had the ball in the corner, and instead of making sure the pass to Jimmy Butler was open, he threw it anyway for another turnover.

Immanuel Quickley hit a three to tie the game. After the teams exchanged baskets, Curry got called for an offensive foul with 2.4 seconds to go for ripping through and contacting Jamal Shead's head.

Immediately in overtime, the Raptors pressed Curry in the backcourt, and his pass got deflected. That led to an Ingram two-pointer.

In all, the Warriors had four turnovers in the span of two minutes, and the Raptors used those to go on a 13-2 run. That run actually ballooned to 19-2, as the Warriors had a couple of empty possessions after the run of turnovers that were converted into Raptors three-pointers.

That effectively ended the game. The Warriors are now 6-11 in clutch games, and they had 20 turnovers that led to 35 Raptors points.

Green Comes Alive Offensively

Green is having one of the worst offensive seasons of his career. He entered Sunday with four-year lows in points per game (8.0), assists per game (5.0) and field-goal percentage (40.4). He was also averaging 3.1 turnovers, which is the second-highest of his career.

The Raptors left him wide open from the perimeter for most of the game—even to the point where his defender was sometimes turning his back and not looking at him when he had the ball at the three-point line—and Green took advantage with four threes. Overall, he had 21 points, seven assists and three turnovers.

Several of those assists were to Curry after he did a back cut. It had been a while since the Green-Curry connection was in sync.

Though it wasn't enough Sunday, that kind of performance should lead to many more wins than losses moving forward.

After Defensive Improvement, Richard Must Play More

Will Richard has not had a consistent role this season, and that's mainly been because the Warriors are so guard-heavy that it's hard for any guard to have a consistent role aside from Stephen Curry.

I'll speculate that Steve Kerr's other reason for not playing him a ton was some defensive issues that just about every rookie has.

But he's showing now that he can be relied on.

Richard had five steals Sunday. He also attacked the glass with seven rebounds.

When he's doing those things, he should play more because he's once of the team's best shooters. He entered Sunday shooting 40.5 percent from beyond the arc.

Overall, RIchard played 35 minutes against the Raptors. He might not get that kind of run very often, but he shouldn't play under 13 minutes in two consecutive games like he did entering Sunday.