SAN FRANCISCO – Boring can be beautiful. That sure wasn’t the scene Sunday night at Chase Center.
The Indiana Pacers’ injury report was longer than a receipt from CVS. Their only win of the 2025-26 NBA season was a short-handed victory against a Warriors team looking for revenge. Plus, the Pacers were on the second night of a back-to-back after playing the Nuggets in Denver the previous night.
The Warriors’ response was sleepwalking in front of their home fans until the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth.
While the final score was a 114-83 Warriors win, the results weren’t pretty. The Warriors outscored a run-down Pacers squad 39-18 in the fourth quarter.
Jimmy Butler was the Warriors’ offense, and he nearly put together a triple-double. Butler was a plus-19 in 30 minutes, scoring 21 points with nine rebounds and seven assists.
Al Horford had his best game with the Warriors. The 39-year-old center hadn’t made a three in the first week-plus of November, going 0 of 7 in his last game and 0 of 2 in the Warriors’ loss to the Pacers to open the month. Sunday night against the same team, Horford finally found a rhythm.
He missed his first attempt but made his final four of five, scoring 12 points – all threes – in 18 minutes off the bench. Horford also had four rebounds and blocked three shots.
Steph Curry missed his third straight game due to an illness. He went through a workout on the Warriors’ practice court and will have another Monday morning before the team’s flight to Oklahoma City in hopes of playing the Thunder on Tuesday night to start off a tough six-game road trip.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ win to snap a two-game losing streak.
Where’s The Offense?
Sitting on the bench in street clothes.
It was a good sign to see Curry back around his teammates after not traveling to Sacramento or Denver. But it was a bad sign to once again see the Warriors look lost without him. The first quarter was a hard watch, and it didn’t get much better as the game went on.
The Warriors opened the game on a 13-4 run, but once coach Steve Kerr called on his bench, the tides began to turn in the Pacers’ favor. From the 7:34 mark of the first quarter when Brandin Podziemski made a 3-foot floater, the Warriors didn’t make another shot until an Horford three with a minute and a half left. The only other points they made in that span were two free throws from Jonathan Kuminga.
There were signs of life when the Warriors went on an 11-0 run at the end of the second quarter before the Pacers closed it with the final five points of the first half. For the most part, that was largely because of Butler getting the ball in his hands and taking over for spurts.
A scrappy Pacers team that never lacks fight took the lead from the Warriors in the third quarter, and Golden State didn’t get it back until two Buddy Hield free throws with under three minutes left sparked a 10-0 run. The Warriors never trailed again.
Give The Ball To Jimmy
Speaking of offense, the Warriors’ best game plan was simple and straight to the point. Give the ball to Butler and get out of the way.
There were far too many possessions where he wasn’t involved in multiple trips down the court. Especially in another game without Curry. The system doesn’t have to drastically change. Understanding what’s needed from said game does.
This was a game where it needed to be Butler and Co., and mostly just him. Butler in the first half was the only player to score in double digits (10 points). He then dropped seven points with five rebounds in the third, and had four points and three assists in the first three and a half minutes of the fourth to put the Warriors ahead by 14 points.
Butler’s 21 points came on 10-of-15 shooting, dominating around the rim at his own pace. The longest shot Butler took was a 19-foot turnaround in the final second of the second quarter that got blocked. Everything else was a layup, floater or short jumper in the paint.
His seven assists also led to 19 points for the Warriors.
Podz, JK Struggle Again
At least Moody brought the required effort and energy needed for a get-right game ahead of the impending road trip. Moody’s outstretched arms on defense disrupted the Pacers, and he scored some highly important points in the third quarter.
Coming out of halftime, Moody only had two points off the bench as a minus-4 in nine minutes. He then was a plus-9 with eight points and two steals in the third quarter, highlighted by a wild four-point play. He also made a three earlier in the quarter with four minutes remaining that put the Warriors back ahead by two points.
Moody’s plus-22 with 13 points had a much different feel than Podziemski being a plus-22 with 14 points, even though they each were 4 of 11 from the field.
Through three quarters, Podziemski was a plus-5 with seven points on 2-of-8 shooting and was 0 of 4 from 3-point range with one assist and two turnovers. He then scored seven points in eight minutes in the fourth quarter. Kuminga, however, was the lone Warriors player who didn’t see any action in the fourth.
It wasn’t his night, again. Kuminga did grab eight rebounds, a continued improvement for him. But he scored just five points on 1-of-9 shooting and missed all five 3-point shots. In the past two games, Kuminga has scored 11 points on 4 of 19 from the field, and has missed all seven of his shots from deep.
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