The losses continue to pile up for the Warriors.
They lost Kristaps Porzingis in the first half. They lost control of the ball 26 times. And they lost to the Pistons on Friday night, 115-101, for the ninth time in their past 11 games.
Both teams played without their best players after Cade Cunningham was diagnosed with a collapsed lung, but Jalen Duren led six Detroit scorers in double figures with 23 points.
The Warriors’ 26 turnovers set a season high and led to Golden State attempting nine fewer shots than the Pistons. De’Anthony Melton (14 points), LJ Cryer (3 of 5 from 3) and Brandin Podziemski (15 points) scored in bursts, but no Warriors player found the bottom of the net consistently enough to overcome their carelessness with the ball.
What it means
It’s looking more likely that the Warriors will have to travel for the 9-10 play-in game. Golden State’s last loss dropped it into 10th place behind the eighth-place Trail Blazers and ninth-place Clippers.
Turning point
There was never a point where the Warriors played anything resembling clean basketball, so they were done as soon as the opening tip, even though they built a lead as large as nine midway through the first half.
With all their absences, the Warriors had little margin for error against the top team in the Eastern Conference, and they committed a cacophony of them.
MVP: Brandin Podziemski
All 11 Warriors who saw the floor committed at least one turnover, but Podziemski was only responsible for two despite acting as the primary ball handler for most of his minutes.
Stat of the game: 14
As their injuries piled up, the Warriors went 14 straight games with a different starting five each night. Steve Kerr was finally able to start the same lineup against Detroit as he did in Boston. Only the Grizzlies (16) have a longer streak in the NBA this season, while the last time the Warriors went 14 games in a row without the same starting five was in 2008-09.
It looks like Golden State will have to use another starting lineup Saturday against the Hawks after Porzingis left late in the first half with lower back soreness and did not return.
Up next
The Warriors face Jonathan Kuminga and the Hawks in the second half of a back-to-back on Saturday. Kuminga has missed 11 of 17 games since the Warriors traded him to Atlanta for Porzingis, but he is expected to be available against his former team.
Golden State is also set to provide an update on Steph Curry (knee), who missed his 20th consecutive game but has begun to increase his basketball activities.
