What we learned in Warriors' heartbreaking last-second road loss to 76ers

What we learned in Warriors’ heartbreaking last-second road loss to 76ers originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

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In every way possible, the Warriors had as bad of a start to a game as possible Thursday night in Philadelphia against the 76ers. That isn’t an exaggeration either.

But this is why all four quarters count. The Warriors’ reserves for the second straight game led a furious comeback, but fell short in heartbreaking fashion, 99-98 in the final second at the Xfinity Mobile Arena.

VJ Edgecombe put back a Tyrese Maxey miss with 0.9 seconds left, and then Maxey blocked a layup attempt from De’Anthony Melton at the buzzer.

After Will Richard made it a 5-5 game, the 76ers then answered with a 22-0 run. The Warriors went more than seven minutes without scoring a single point, chucking threes and counting their misses. They finished the first quarter with 10 points, which is the lowest amount for any team in any quarter throughout the NBA this season, and the fewest for the Warriors ever under coach Steve Kerr.

The Warriors could have waved the white flag after the first quarter. At least at halftime. But no, for the second straight game, they scratched, clawed and fought until the very end. The Warriors, with two and a half minutes left, took their first lead since the score was 3-2.

Pat Spencer again was phenomenal off the bench for the Warriors. One game after scoring a career-high 17 points, Spencer played 24 minutes and was a plus-17 with 16 points, four rebounds and four assists.

Making his season debut, Melton was as good as Warriors fans remembered. The veteran guard scored 14 points off the bench to go with three assists and two steals.

The Warriors (11-12) already were without their top two stars, Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler, to begin a three-game road trip. Adding injury to insult, Draymond Green limped to the locker room in the second quarter and was ruled out with a right foot injury early in the third quarter.

Maxey dropped a game-high 35 points, but the Warriors’ bench outscored the 76ers’ reserves 67-24. Four different Warriors bench players finished in double figures.

Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ loss to the 12-9 76ers:

Melton Makes Season Debut

Exactly one year to the date, Melton underwent ACL surgery. On Thursday night, he made his season debut, playing in his first game since Nov. 12, 2024. Melton joined Jonathan Kuminga as the first two players off the bench against one of his former teams, replacing Al Horford and Will Richard.

He used his length and strength halfway through the second quarter to score his first two points of the season.

That layup was the lone shot Melton made in the first half. As the Warriors started adjusting the kind of shots they were taking in the third quarter, Melton was money on a midrange jumper for his first attempt of the third quarter. As the Warriors began chopping away the deficit, Melton led the Warriors with eight points in the third quarter.

Melton added another four points, one rebound and one assist in the fourth quarter. Kerr said that Melton would be capped at 20 minutes, but he brought him for the final two minutes of the game, bringing him to just under 22 in his first game played in more than a year.

Stats were impressive enough for Melton. The way he played with the intentionality of getting two feet in the paint, pushing pace and getting to the free-throw line are lessons the rest of the Warriors can learn from.

Horford Gets First Start In Return

Returning from missing the Warriors’ last four games due to sciatic nerve irritation and a personal matter, Horford was thrown into the starting lineup for the first time this season. And he was part of the action right away.

Joel Embiid scored on Horford from 11 feet out to start the game, and then Horford responded by draining a three on the other side for the Warriors.

Horford took five more shots the rest of the first half, including four threes, and missed each one. The same thing happened in the second half, too.

He played 18 minutes and scored three points on 1-of-8 shooting and was 1 of 7 beyond the arc. However, Horford did add six rebounds, four assists and one big blocked shot. Horford was a plus-5 overall.

Another Stunning Second Half

For the second straight game, the Warriors were a better and smarter team in the third quarter than the product that was on the court in the first two quarters. Just look at their shot chart from the third quarter compared to the first half, when they scored 32 points, which is two fewer than they went into halftime with.

The Warriors only took four threes in the third quarter after attempting 15 in the first quarter and 11 in the second, going 6 of 26 (23.1 percent). But as defense turned to offense, the game became easier for the Warriors in the third quarter. The Warriors made two of their four 3-point attempts in the third quarter and went 9 of 15 on 2-pointers (60 percent) while frequenting the paint.

They also had five steals in the quarter, forced seven turnovers and took 12 free throws – twice as many as the 76ers. That style then followed them into the fourth quarter. The Warriors went on a 15-0 run in the fourth quarter, taking them from down 84-66 to making it an 84-81 game.

The Warriors outscored the 76ers 32-19 in the fourth quarter and 64-43 in the second half.

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