SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors’ fourth-quarter rally fell short Monday night as the shorthanded Indiana Pacers pulled away for a 112-104 win.
The Warriors took a one-point lead three times in the fourth but were unable to get enough stops to pull away. Steph Curry made a pair of free throws that gave Golden State a one-point lead at the 4:42 mark. But the Pacers responded by closing out the game on a 13-4 run to put an end to the Warriors’ 10-game home win streak.
“When the game is not going your way, you’ve got to be able to get stops and score in transition and we never really contained them defensively,” coach Steve Kerr said after the loss. “Our defense wasn’t able to lead us to offensive transition.”
Klay Thompson led the Warriors in scoring, finishing with 28 points. His eight 3s moved him past Jason Kidd on the NBA’s all-time 3-point list for 13th place. A flurry of Thompson’s triples came in the second quarter, during which the Warriors overcame a 16-point deficit, to knot the game up at 42. But the Pacers closed out the half with a 17-8 run to take a nine-point lead into the break.
Curry had an uncharacteristic off night against the Pacers. He never really got into rhythm, opening the game with 1 of 7 shooting for four points in the first half before finishing with a season-low 12 points. He also added six assists and four rebounds.
“They did a good job on Steph, trapping him,” Kerr said. “They’ve got some long, athletic bigs so they switched and trapped quite a bit on the perimeter and just tried to keep him off the 3-point line as much as they could and we just didn’t attack well enough.”
The Warriors played without Andrew Wiggins, who’s dealing with muscle tightness in his right leg. Coach Steve Kerr said pregame that the team wasn’t too concerned with Wiggins’ injury and that he shouldn’t miss more games.
Jordan Poole started in place of Wiggins. The fourth-year guard finished with 23 points, five rebounds and four assists.
Meanwhile, Pacers guard Andrew Nembhard finished with 31 points on 13 of 21 shooting. He also snatched eight rebounds and dished out 13 assists for the Pacers, who were without Tyrese Haliburton and Myles Turner.
Golden State (13-12) will hit the road to play the Utah Jazz Wednesday in Salt Lake City. The Warriors have had far more success at Chase Center, where they’re 11-2, than on the road, where they’re 2-10.
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