Did Curry blame Wiggins for Warrior loss?

The Golden State Warriors suffered a heartbreaking defeat to the Sacramento Kings in Game 1 of the first round of NBA playoffs on Saturday. The Warriors came so close to winning, but couldn’t finish the job, losing 126-123 and giving the Kings a 1-0 lead to start the series.

Who’s to blame for the Warriors’ Game 1 loss?

The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth battle between Warriors players Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and Kings players De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk right until the very end. A few things happened just at the tail-end of the game. Right before the final possession, the Warriors were down by just one point, 124-123. Andrew Wiggins had a chance to take back the lead on a wide-open three-point opportunity, but missed it.

“We controlled the game for a good 32-33 minutes. They went on a run end of the third quarter/start of the fourth, got the crowd back into it,” said Curry in the post-game press conference. “And then we responded, which is what we’re capable of doing. And we had a good look in the corner to go up two down the stretch of the game...”

Curry is obviously talking about the Wiggins play here. However, what happened after that was that Curry himself had an opportunity to tie up the game. After Wiggins missed the shot, the Kings scored two from the free-throw line, putting the game at 126-123. With three seconds left, Curry had the chance to shoot for three. He shot, but he missed and the Warriors lost by three points. So really, both Curry and Wiggins had opportunities to put the Warriors back in the game in the final seconds, but neither was able to do so.

Curry did have other positive things to say about Wiggins though. Wiggins missed the last 25 games of the regular season for personal reasons, joining the team again for the first time in 62 days. In his first game back, he offered 17 points, three rebounds, and four blocked shots.

“It was great. He looked good out there, real springy,” said Curry. “For him to get his feet wet. You know, that much time off, jump into a playoff series. Like the way you look and know it’s going to continue to get better.”

He did say one last thing though...

“Everything besides his three-point shot was pretty solid.”