MEMPHIS _ Steph Curry curled off a down screen, rose for an open wing 3 and had a chance to give the Warriors a glimmer of hope entering the fourth. They trailed by 20. Curry could slice it to 17. A stop and a score would then get it to a manageable 15 for the final 12 minutes.
But Curry airballed and then, after a Warriors stop, Draymond Green threw an errant outlet pass right to the Grizzlies, summing up a brutal night. Tony Allen flipped the turnover into a wide open dunk, Memphis' lead jumped to 22 and Steve Kerr raised the white flag.
The eventual final, after a quarter of mop-up duty: 110-89 Grizzlies.
This version of the Warriors doesn't lose much. But a trend has emerged: When they do lose, they often lose big. Golden State is 20-4. Three of their losses include a 29-point blowout to the Spurs in the opener, a 20-point waxing by the young Lakers in Los Angeles and Saturday night's 21-point no-show in Memphis.
Included within this loss: Two important inactives. Andre Iguodala got the game off for rest. Zaza Pachulia was a late scratch with a wrist contusion. Their absences both stung.
Without Pachulia, Kerr chose to start Anderson Varejao. In Varejao's 18 minutes, the Warriors were outscored by 18 points. He went scoreless, had two fouls and three turnovers, including a strange pass into the first row with no Warrior in the vicinity.
But this loss can't be placed on the oft-maligned Varejao. The Warriors had plenty of other issues, many stemming from their All-Star quartet.
Curry's shooting struggles continued. He went 3-of-11 from deep, putting him at 6-of-28 on this road trip and sinking his season 3-point shooting percentage to below 40 percent, easily a career-low.
Klay Thompson, meanwhile, was quiet. Tony Allen, one of the league's premier perimeter defenders, blanketed him in the first half. Thompson was scoreless for the first 15 minutes, unable to find many open looks and flubbing those he did. Thompson missed two wide open layups. In all, he finished the night 4-of-14 shooting.
Kevin Durant had an efficient night: 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting in 31 minutes. But it was the 13 that was puzzling. He was clearly the only Warrior to have it going on the offensive end, but he passed up some open looks, including a wing 3, set up by Curry, without anyone within 10 feet.
Durant instead swung it to an unprepared, guarded Ian Clark. It went off his hands out of bounds, one of the Warriors 23 turnovers. They only had 15 assists, less than half of their season average.
