The Golden State Warriors lead the NBA in steals and point off turnovers, and they showed why tonight in New Jersey.
The Warriors' active defense forced the Nets into numerous mistakes and turned an 11-point first-half deficit into a 105-89 win at The Izod Center.
C.J. Watson was the main culprit for the Warriors defense. He had three steals that led to breakaway buckets at the Nets' end. Watson led the Warriors with 18 points and five steals off the bench.
The Warriors led by as many as 20 points, but the Nets cut that lead to five when a Chris Douglas-Roberts dunk made it 90-85. The Nets couldn't get over the hump, however.
Monta Ellis quickly countered with four straight points and Golden State never looked back. Ellis scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half.
"We struggled with our energy," said Kiki Vandeweghe, whose team played last night in Chicago. "With five, six minutes left we got it below 10. We fought back and I was proud of them. We just ran out of gas."
Chris Douglas-Roberts said the Warriors played to their strenghs.
"They're a really good passing lane team, and I think they took advantage of us coming off a back-to-back," said Douglas-Roberts, who scored 10 points. "It's no excuse really, they just outplayed us."
The Nets led, 27-20, after the first quarter but were outplayed in the final three quarters. Brook Lopez made two free-throws with 1:47 remaining in the first quarter to give the Nets a 26-15 lead. The Warriors promptly answered with a 16-3 run, and the Nets never responded.
The Warriors outscored the Nets, 38-21, in the second quarter.
"The second quarter was tough for us," Vandeweghe said. "They had 38 points, we had a lot of turnovers, and you're not going to win many ball games when you let that happen."
Lopez led the game with 21 points and 10 rebounds. He only scored two points in the second half, however. Foul trouble sent Lopez to the bench in the third quarter and he never regained his rhythm.
'Brook is a big part of what we're doing so I would say definitely [his foul trouble hurt us]," Courtney Lee said. "He's making it easier for a lot of people so when he goes out it definitely takes away from what we're trying to do."
Devin Harris added 19 points while Lee scored 15 points and grabbed eight boards.
Harris tried to take a silver lining from tonight's effort.
"We're the type of team that we make strides," Harris said. "We made a few steps forward last night and we took a couple of steps back tonight. We'll continue to progress and get better but we've got to kind of fight through the fatigue at that point in time."
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