Warriors self-destruct in 4th, fall to Grizzlies 91-90

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OAKLANDThe Warriors had a 20-point lead late in the third quarter and 16-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, but squandered it away. Golden State committed nine turnovers in the final period and were outscored by the Grizzlies 39-22.

Grizzlies 91, Warriors 90Star of the game: Mike Conley scored nine of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, including six in the final three minutes to help the Grizzlies to their seventh win in a row.Turnovers galore: The Warriors committed 24 turnovers on the nightincluding 12 combined by Monta Ellis and Stephen Currywhich led to 27 Memphis points. The Warriors had nine turnovers in the fourth quarter, many of them leading to fastbreak points. The Grizzlies had 16 fastbreak points on the nightall of them coming in the fourth quarter.You think its over and you begin to freestyle and ad-lib and all of a sudden you give a team hope and life, Warriors coach Mark Jackson said. To start that fourth quarter, we could have knocked them out and they would have been ready to play their bench guys and pretty much surrender.They got underneath our skin and we didnt respond individually or collectively.Key stretch: With the Warriors clinging to a three-point lead with less than three minutes to go, they committed turnovers on consecutive possessions, each leading to Memphis scoreswhich gave Memphis its first lead since the first lead since 2-0.It boils down to youve got to take care of the basketball, Jackson said. And turnovers absolutely sap the energy of teams and we witnessed it tonight. That had an effect on how we were defending. It was just bad basketball. We just threw the ball all over the place.Biggest lead: Late in the third quarter, the Warriors led the Grizzlies 63-43. That 20-point lead was the Warriors biggest lead of the season. The Warriors were up 19 points against both Chicago and New York, Games Nos. 2 and 3 on the year.Still, it slipped away and turned into the most disappointing loss of the season.Sometimes you dont have to say anything, Jackson said. No speech, no sermon, no message. We all know what took place. You dont want to say anything spur of the moment and well reflect and then talk about it.Winless vs. West: The Warriors entered Mondays game having played only five games against Western Conference, the fewest amount of games against conference teams of any other team.With the loss, the Warriors are 0-6 against Western Conference teams, the only team in the league winless in that area. Mondays game against Memphis was the first of 15 consecutive games against the West.Grizzly start: Memphis was just 15-for-40 from the floor at halftime (37.5 percent), but if you take away its two leading scorersRudy Gay and Marc Gasolit got even worse. A lot worse.Outside of those two players, the rest of the Grizzlies were shooting 20 percent (4-for-20).Defense first: The Warriors had their best defensive stretch of the season in quarter No. 1. They held the Grizzlies to just 27.3 percent shooting from the field (6-for-22) and forced them into five turnovers.The 13 points given up were a season-low for the Warriors for points in a first period.Getting critical: Warriors coach Mark Jackson remains optimistic about his team, but facts are facts and they were 5-10 before Mondays game against Memphis.Jackson said the Warriors are improving, but not fast enough at this point.What you dont want is to run out of time, Jackson said. There comes a point where you have to speed up the processand we are at that point. We have a great part of the schedule where we will be at home against some very good teams. But in our building you have to take care of business. This is going to be a great stretch for us to begin to show who we are and cement our identity.

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