SAN FRANCISCO — The Kristaps Porzingis era in Golden State is off to an inauspicious start.
In their first game since acquiring the towering stretch five, the Warriors fell behind by as many as 34 points and trailed by double-digits the entire second half of a 121-108 loss to the Boston Celtics. And, for the most part, the deficit was accrued while attempting to integrate Porzingis, who finished with 12 points in 17 minutes.
Porzingis was one of six Warriors to finish in double figures, led by 18 from De’Anthony Melton, but Golden State never recovered from his disastrous initial debut.
Without Steph Curry (knee) for the sixth consecutive game, coach Steve Kerr didn’t make any changes to his starting five in the Warriors’ first game after an eight-day layoff for the NBA All-Star break, opting to bring Porzingis off the bench as he plays under a restriction of 15-20 minutes per game.
No team in the NBA has attempted a larger share of its shots from beyond the perimeter this season than the Warriors (50.4%), but playing without their top-two scoring options (Curry, Jimmy Butler), they upped the ante. Of their 50 attempts from the field in the first half, 31 came from distance (62%) — but only 11 fell (35.5%).
The Warriors offered little resistance in the paint or beyond the perimeter. Jaylen Brown drove to the rim at will while recording a triple double (21 points, 14 rebounds, 12 assists), while Peyton Pritchard and Sam Hauser combined for 42 points on 10-of-15 shooting from 3-point territory. The Celtics, not far behind the Warriors in 3-point proclivity, took only 40 attempts from distance to the Warriors’ 55, yielding only nine fewer points.
Richard drained the Warriors’ seventh 3-pointer of the first quarter as the opening period came to a close, pulling Golden State within 36-32, and led the team with 15 points off the bench in the first half. But Golden State took a 74-51 deficit into intermission after Boston mounted a 17-2 run in Porzingis’ first minutes in a Warriors uniform.
The 30-year-old trade acquisition checked in for the first time to begin the second quarter, receiving a hearty round of cheers from the capacity crowd. Things quickly went south, however, and by the time Porzingis checked out a little more than four minutes later, the Warriors’ deficit had grown by 15 points — to 53-34.
The closest the Warriors would get after that came with a few minutes left in regulation, after a comeback effort pulled them within 11.
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As he knocked the rust off, Porzingis played progressively better. And so did the Warriors, who outscored the Celtics by 15 with him on the floor in the second half after he accumulated a minus-19 before intermission.
The 7-foot-2 center slammed home his first points in a Warriors uniform with two hands toward the end of the first half, with the assist from Al Horford, his teammate for two years in Boston. He drained his first 3-pointer for Golden State a few possessions later.
But the damage was already done. Without Curry, the Warriors didn’t have the firepower to erase a 34-point difference.
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