Warriors vs. Pelicans: Golden State's Comeback Not All Good News

The Golden State Warriors crawled out from a 20-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter to pull off the 123-119 overtime win over the New Orleans Pelicans in Game 3 on Thursday night.

While the comeback was certainly worthy of celebration, it should also be taken as a caution.

According to Brett Martel of The Associated Press, Golden State has been down by 20 points entering the fourth quarter 358 previous times since the NBA's institution of the shot clock. This was the first time the team pulled off the win.

This was also just the third time any team pulled off a comeback of this size in NBA playoffs history, per ESPN Stats & Information:

"

What an improbable comeback! Warriors are 3rd team to rally from 20 down entering 4th quarter of playoff game (2002 Celtics, 2012 Clippers)

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 24, 2015"

While this speaks to the magnitude of the comeback, it should also be a warning to the Warriors: The chances of digging their way back out of a margin that large again are 1-in-359.

New Orleans revealed one Golden State weakness during the course of Game 3—the Warriors can stumble when under the right pressure offensively and defensively.

The Pelicans spread a 19-0 run between the first and second quarters to take a 39-25 lead with 9:26 to play in the first half. During that stretch, the team was stingy on the defensive side of the ball, allowing the Warriors just one offensive rebound.

New Orleans continued to control the game through the half with a 63-52 lead, shooting particularly well inside the paint during the second quarter with 16 points.

Golden State struggled to limit Anthony Davis, who led the Pelicans with 90 points through this point in the series—35 in Game 1, 26 in Game 2 and 29 in Game 3. Anderson also proved problematic for the Warriors in Game 3, nearly matching Davis with 26 points.

Overall the Pelicans shot 51.1 percent from the field compared to the Warriors who shot just 40.4 percent, well below even their regular season average of 46 percent on the road.

New Orleans also limited Stephen Curry to 34.5 percent shooting from the field overall, his poorest shooting performance of the series and significantly lower than his 48.7 percent regular season average.

Obviously it is difficult for a team to remain so efficient on both ends of the court for a long period of time, which is how Golden State eventually found its way back into the game.

The Warriors heated up from the floor in the fourth quarter while grabbing offensive boards. They improved their shooting from 20.8 percent in the third quarter to 44 percent in the fourth. They also finished with 22 total offensive rebounds.

However, the Pelicans' high offensive production and stingy defense during that 19-0 run created the separation they needed to eventually take the 20-point lead.

While it's difficult to imagine the Warriors will find themselves in this situation again, it is possible—that is, if another team can manage to put together solid offensive runs while limiting Golden State's offensive rebounds.

In which case the Warriors could find themselves in trouble, especially against better teams in later rounds.