Warriors vs. Grizzlies: Game 3 Score and Twitter Reaction from 2015 NBA Playoffs

The Golden State Warriors were an unstoppable basketball force throughout the regular season. They seemingly never missed a three-pointer, played stifling defense and had the MVP of the league leading the way to the NBA's best record. 

The Memphis Grizzlies don't care about any of that in their second-round playoff series. Memphis won Game 3 Saturday night to the tune of 99-89 and now lead the series 2-1. The Warriors made an abysmal 23.1 percent of their shots from three-point range and turned the ball over 17 times, which is a testament to the Grizzlies hard-nosed defense.

Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol led the way for the victorious Grizzlies with a combined 43 points and 23 rebounds, and Tony Allen continued his tremendous defense with four more steals. Stephen Curry spearheaded the Warriors offensive attack with 23 points and six assists, but he only shot 8-of-21 from the field.

ESPN Stats & Info noted that it was not business as usual for the MVP:

Memphis could not have scripted a better first half for its first home game in this series. With the raucous crowd behind them, the Grizzlies jumped out to a commanding 55-39 lead by halftime and held the typically sharp-shooting Warriors to 2-of-13 shooting from three-point range in the first 24 minutes.

Zach Harper of CBS Sports and Marc Stein of ESPN explained why the Grizzlies were so effective on the defensive end of the court:

"

Grizz putting on pace-controlling clinic. Stats say Warriors have nine fast-break points ... feels more like two. Dubs swarmed on every shot

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) May 10, 2015"

The lead was one thing, but Golden State's effort level was alarming given the stage. Jimmy Spencer of Sporting News raised a red flag for Warriors fans:

Monte Poole of CSNBayArea.com foreshadowed an early-second-half turnaround for the Warriors while pointing out an area of concern from the first half:

Golden State started winning in other areas in the opening minutes of the second half by taking the game away from the Memphis bigs. The Warriors pushed the pace and doubled down low on the defensive end, which led to an extended run that cut the lead to 62-54 with seven minutes left in the third quarter.

Peter Bukowski of Sports Illustrated and Matt Moore of CBSSports pointed out some of the effective changes for the Warriors:

"

Great defense from the Warriors has opened up their offense. Get stop, run the ball, find an open look before Memphis can set.

— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) May 10, 2015"

Golden State appeared ready to make Saturday's showdown a game down the stretch, but it missed a golden opportunity, as Ethan Strauss of ESPN noted:

"

Failure to capitalize on TOs really hurt the Warriors in that last stretch. Draymond with 2 overly ambitious passes

— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) May 10, 2015"

The Grizzlies answered the Warriors' run with an extended stretch of their own to push the lead to 79-64 at the end of three quarters. Part of the problem for the Warriors was their carelessness with the basketball, as Spencer and Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group pointed out:

The scary thing for the Warriors (and every other remaining team in the playoffs) was the fact that one piece wasn't even contributing for Memphis, as Stein acknowledged:

Things got worse for the Warriors at the start of the fourth quarter, even after they trimmed the deficit to 13 points. Ray Ratto of CSNBayArea.com described the setback:

Despite the Marreese Speights injury, the Warriors continued to trim into the deficit throughout the fourth quarter. They still didn't shoot the ball effectively, but they came up with multiple defensive stops and got to the free-throw line. Suddenly, it was 88-81 Grizzlies with four minutes remaining in the game.

Strauss pointed out that Harrison Barnes was a problem for Memphis, while the NBA passed along a replay of one of his impressive plays:

Courtney Lee then hit arguably the biggest shot of the night after Golden State cut the deficit to four points in the closing stretch. Bukowski gave the Grizzlies credit for their perimeter shooting:  

In addition to the clutch three-point shot from Lee, Gasol banked a long-range shot off the backboard, Allen converted a layup in transition and Mike Conley drove to the basket and converted a smooth shot in the lane. Golden State made its late push, but Memphis had an answer every single time the Warriors climbed to within five.

Curry only scored two points in the fourth quarter and missed multiple shots (including a free throw) near the end.

Still, Saturday's game was all about Memphis and its effort on both ends of the floor. The crowd was intimidating, Allen and Conley suffocated Curry and Klay Thompson and the bigs controlled the pace down low.

That combination will be tough to beat moving forward.

What's Next?

Mark Humphrey/Associated Press

Next up in this series is Game 4 Monday night back in Memphis.

It is not a must-win for the Warriors, but it is difficult to envision them overcoming a 3-1 deficit given the way Memphis played in Games 2 and 3. What's more, the only way Golden State can win this series is by picking up at least one victory in Memphis, so Curry and company must come out with the proper urgency or the season will be on the brink.

Stein suggested as much:

The stifling Grizzlies defense and raucous Memphis crowd will both be back Monday, and it will be critical that Golden State responds.

It will do just that if it assumes head coach Steve Kerr's attitude after the Game 2 loss, per Strauss: “What I told our guys today is, there has never been a [championship team] in the history of this league that hasn't felt like we did yesterday and today. I was on five of them. And in every one of those runs there were moments, several moments where you don't sleep, you wake up feeling like crap.”

The Warriors are right in the middle of one of those moments.