SAN FRANCISCO — De’Anthony Melton heaved the ball over Moses Moody’s head and out of bounds, Brandin Podziemski had his pocket picked by Gradey Dick and the Warriors watched as a desperation attempt missed the rim as the shot clock expired.
Inside Chase Center, where there were more empty seats than usual, the crowd groaned.
Three consecutive possessions in the second quarter said it all in the Warriors’ first game without Jimmy Butler.
It was a struggle to manufacture anything in a 145-127 rout that was out of hand by halftime. If the offense wasn’t ugly enough, Golden State (25-20) offered little resistance against Toronto’s combination of speed, size and athleticism, allowing the Raptors (26-19) to shoot 59.3%.
“They couldn’t miss. They had a great plan. They came in and took it to us early, then we were obviously trying to swim up stream upstream the entire game,” coach Steve Kerr said. “It happens. We’ve been the team making all the 3s the past few games. We were probably due for one like this.”
Toronto, a bottom-five team in the NBA from 3-point range, knocked down 21 of its 34 attempts beyond the perimeter (61.8%) en route to its highest scoring output of the season. Likewise, the 145 points were the most Golden State has yielded to an opponent this season.
Stephen Curry scored 16 points in three quarters and Golden State got double-digit contributions from five others as the Warriors attempted to fill the shoes of Butler, who was ruled out for the remainder of the season after tearing his ACL in the third quarter of Monday’s 135-112 win over the Miami Heat.
It wasn’t enough firepower to overcome the deep early hole they dug for themselves, falling behind by as many as 30 points and trailing 70-50 at halftime. Without Butler’s ability to slow the game down, they committed 18 turnovers that led to 34 Toronto points, outscored 21-5 on fast breaks.
“It’s an abrupt change,” Moses Moody said of the loss of Butler. “I think it’s a process. I’d be lying if I said you can just switch paths overnight and just figure it out. Back-to-back, too, we played last night. I think it takes time.”
A late charge led by Jonathan Kuminga, in his first playing time since Dec. 18, ignited the crowd and kept the game competitive in the second half. Buddy Hield, who finished with a team-best 25 points, connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to pull the Warriors within 125-116 with 5:02 to play, but that was as close as they would get.
Curry took a seat with 4:09 left in the third quarter and didn’t return to the game.
“I wasn’t going to chase this game,” which was the Warriors’ third in four nights, Kerr said. “With that second unit playing so well, it absolutely made sense to just stay with them.”
Kerr said before tipoff that he expected Kuminga to be ready to play if called upon, and the 23-year-old forward saw his first action in almost a month to begin the second quarter. After Kerr rotated through 11 players in the opening period, he turned to Kuminga, who received tepid applause with some fans standing to their feet.
Kuminga played 21 minutes over two stints, grabbed five rebounds and finished with 20 points. He missed his first two foul shots but made up for it by completing back-to-back three-point plays late in the third quarter in what amounted to one of the Warriors’ best stretches of the night.
“We were down 20, we had to figure it out,” said Hield, who was perfect on six 3-point attempts — all in the second half. The and-ones from Kuminga “settled us in.”
Golden State trailed 94-68 when Kuminga grabbed a rebound and drew a foul with a little more than 4 minutes to play in the period. Kuminga scored 10 points as the Warriors went on a 26-14 run to end the quarter, capped by Kuminga going end-to-end for a buzzer-beating layup to cut the deficit to 108-94.
“He was great. He came in and had great energy, attacked the rim, made some shots. I thought JK was really good,” Kerr said. “It’s a great sign with Jimmy out, obviously there’s a hole at that spot in our roster. JK is going to factor in here again. Really pleased with the way he stayed ready, and stayed prepared. (He) got his opportunity and played really well.”
Officials waved off a layup by Hield as the first half ended, but it would make little difference as Golden State went into the locker room already trailing 70-50. Curry, the lone Warrior in double figures by halftime, needed 13 attempts to score 12 points, finishing 6-for-16 from the field.
Meanwhile, Immanuel Quickley and Scottie Barnes combined for 32 first-half points while shooting 12-of-16 from the field. Quickley finished with a game-high 40 points to go with 10 assists, Barnes (26 points, 11 assists, seven rebounds) ended up three rebounds shy of a triple-double and Brandon Ingram added 22 points.
The Raptors converted their first five attempts from the field while forcing four straight Warriors misses — three from Draymond Green — to jump out to a 10-0 lead. They extended the early advantage to 41-28 at the end of the quarter and widened it as far as 28 points before halftime.
