Golden State Warriors forward Gui Santos pointed to missed details in key moments after his team fell 119-116 to the Utah Jazz on Monday night at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
The contest featured 19 lead changes and was decided in the final possessions when Blake Hinson knocked down a three-pointer with 29.9 seconds remaining.
Santos said the Warriors struggled to control several small areas of the game that often decide tight matchups.
“I think in the beginning of the game we followed too much and also by the end the game we miss some important free throws and that was the big difference,” Santos said.
The Brazilian forward emphasized that multiple minor mistakes accumulated throughout the night.
“There is a lot of little stuff that we got to figure out. We got to do better,” Santos said. “Box out we lost a couple rebounds. We should win more 50/50 balls and we didn’t.”
Utah finished with a 50-46 rebounding advantage and converted 27 of 29 free throws, while Golden State went 14-for-21 from the line.
Santos said defensive consistency also played a major role in the outcome.
“I think that we were not putting stress on them defensively,” Santos said. “We were kind of moving the ball and trying to find the best passes, but we could not get stops and that hurt us today.”
The Warriors often fouled while trying to recover defensively, which led to easy points for the Jazz.
“Some plays that we could not get stops, we foul them and they go to the line,” Santos said. “That’s too easy points for them.”
Utah received balanced scoring across the lineup, led by Brice Sensabaugh’s 21 points and a double-double from Kyle Filipowski, who finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds.
Golden State had its own offensive production despite playing without Stephen Curry and several rotation players.
De’Anthony Melton led the Warriors with 22 points and seven rebounds, while Santos contributed 15 points, eight rebounds and five assists in 33 minutes.
Brandin Podziemski added 14 points and eight rebounds but missed four free throws in the fourth quarter of the three-point loss.
Despite the disappointment, Santos said the team must quickly move forward given the pace of the NBA schedule.
“I think it’s just the NBA like being in the NBA is like that,” Santos said. “You lose a tough one today, a game that you should win, tomorrow you just got another one and you got to flush this one and go to the next one.”
Santos added that dwelling on the result is not productive for a team still fighting for position in the Western Conference standings.
“It’s not good lose a game like that,” Santos said. “We know that we got to win games like that, but we cannot change it now. We just got to go to the next one and win the next one.”
The loss dropped Golden State to 32-32, leaving the team ninth in the Western Conference as it continues its push to remain in the Play-In Tournament race.
