Takeaways from Warriors' Stunning Loss to Grizzlies: Breaking Down Curry's Clutch Woes

The Golden State Warriors led 106-94 with 3:47 to go before getting outscored 17-2 to lose 111-108 to the Memphis Grizzlies in their home opener.

They missed their last nine field-goal attempts, Brandin Podziemski had a turnover bringing the ball up the court, and Draymond Green was called for an illegal screen with 13 seconds to go.

Ty Jerome led all scorers with 28 points, while Cameron Boozer had a great game with 25 points, 13 rebounds and six assists. He had the go-ahead basket with 20 seconds left.

Stephen Curry had a team-high 24 points, while Yaxel Lendeborg filled the stat sheet with 18 points, 13 rebounds and six assists.

Here are three takeaways from Friday's game.

Steph Deserves Most Blame for Meltdown

Curry checked back into the game with 5:18 remaining and the Warriors leading by 11. He didn't score from then.

His first mistake was fouling Jaylen Wells on a three-point attempt with 3:34 to go. Wells made the shot and converted the four-point play to cut the Warriors' lead to eight.

Curry then missed an open three that he's made hundreds of times, giving the Grizzlies more life.

After they cut it to four, Curry drove inside and had a makeable lefty layup over the outstretched arm of Zach Edey, but he left it just short.

Then after the Grizzlies cut it to one, Curry tried to take a fadeaway three off a split-action play and got blocked by Edey. In fairness to Curry, the Warriors had horrible spacing on the play, and once Curry receives that pass headed toward the sideline, it's difficult to do anything but shoot before falling out of bounds.

He coud get a pass for that, but the last miss, which came in a tie game, was a crusher.

After Brandin Podziemski missed a wide-open three, Curry got the offensive rebound near the baseline. He had space to take a mid-range jumper, but he decided to back into a much more difficult three.

Curry wasn't overworked in this game. He played just 30 minutes, and he got plenty of scoring and playmaking help from Lendeborg, Podz and others.

He's one of the most clutch players in the sport, but on this night, he came up short.

Warriors on Brink of Very Ugly Start to the Season

It's never a good sign when the second game of the season feels like a huge momentum game, but a look at the schedule suggests it could be just that.

The Warriors' next four games are at Phoenix (Saturday), at Denver (Monday), at Minnesota (Wednesday) and vs. the Lakers (Friday).

It's not clear who will be resting for Saturday's back-to-back, though Curry said after the game that he probably won't play. Even if Curry and Green play, the road-game-back-to-back can be difficult for anyone to get their body recovered for.

The Nuggets, Timberwolves and Lakers might all be top-five teams in the West this season.

It would not be shocking if the Warriors finished this part of the schedule 0-6.

Boozer Gets Better of Lendeborg in Game 1 of Potential Rivalry

Lendeborg said during summer league he'd be circling his matchups against Boozer, and for his part, he didn't have a bad game.

In fact, he was mostly blameless for the Warriors' meltdown. He did miss one float shot, but he got his own rebound and kicked it out to Podz, who missed an open three. Outside of that, he was not really involved on either end of the court.

But just as a refresher, this is what he said about the Grizzlies after their summer league title game loss to the Warriors.

"Their butts got tight," Lendeborg said. "They puckered up. Some of us are built for the moment and some aren't. ... Our spirit, our will, our desire to not lose is pretty much what helped us out."

Almost everyone on the court for both teams wasn't playing in that summer league game. Still, that's a quote that a team will use as bulletin-board material.

Ironically, the Warriors were guilty of exactly what Lendeborg said Memphis' summer league team was.

Anyway, Boozer and Lendeborg had six turnovers each, so it wasn't exactly a masterpiece from either.

But the bottom line is Boozer outplayed Lendeborg and the Grizzlies won, which makes for a great start to this potential rivalry for the No. 3 overall pic.

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