The Warriors played another down-to-the-wire game in Salt Lake City on Wednesday night, and this time they weren’t so fortunate.
With one final chance for a game-tying 3-pointer, the Warriors never got a clean look, turning the ball over with 2.4 seconds to play falling 108-103 to the Utah Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena.
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The teams were never more than six points apart over the final five minutes, but Utah put it away on a pair of Donovan Mitchell free throws with 2.5 seconds to play.
The Warriors edged the Jazz 124-123 on Oct. 19 at Vivint, so consider this Utah’s revenge game.
Here are three takeaways from Wednesday:
They were tripled into submission
Golden State Warriors
When the Warriors won at Utah in October, they prevailed despite making only 10 3-pointers, to 19 for the Jazz. That formula once again failed them Wednesday night.
While Utah was scorching the nets from deep at a 16-of-42 clip, the Warriors were 10 of 31, with 10 of the attempts coming in the during a fourth-quarter comeback attempt. That 48-30 differential in points beyond the arc deep was too much to overcome.
Utah does a nice job of running the Warriors off the arc. However, the Jazz are not invulnerable, despite how good they’ve looked when facing the Warriors.
Curry mostly alone is not enough
Kevin Durant arrived after halftime, recovering from a 2-of-11 first half to score 18 of his 30 points, on 8-of-12 shooting over the final 24 minutes.
[RELATED: Kevin Durant passes Oakland's Gary Payton on NBA all-time scoring list]
Klay Thompson never provided his usual offense, scoring 12 points on 3-of-12 shooting and missing all four of his 3-point attempts.
Stephen Curry finished with a game-high 32 points on 12-of-21 shooting, including 5-of-9 from deep.
He was the only Warrior among those attempting more than four shots to shoot higher than 50 percent from the field. That rarely will be enough to succeed.
Thompson’s defense on point
Thompson has spent six years quietly stating has case to be considered one of the league’s elite defenders, and he brought forth yet another exhibit on this night .
He spent most of the game shadowing shooting guard Donovan Mitchell, and limited the Jazz star to 17 points on 5-of-26 shooting from the field.
Mitchell entered the game as Utah’s leading scorer, averaging 21.0 points per game. He is 12-of-49 rom the field in two games against Thompson and the Warriors.
There will be many nights when Thompson doesn’t shoot well. The Warriors can live with that because his defense is so valuable. He’s never better than when he is assigned to a star.