Moments before tipoff Friday night, when forward Draymond Green was scratched from the lineup because of a sprained left finger, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr knew that his team could have a tough time against the Raptors: It was without its two best players on the back end of a back-to-back set.
But few could’ve anticipated the 130-77 loss at Amalie Arena that unfolded, which raised questions that went beyond X’s and O’s: Has Golden State lost its competitive fire? With 23 games left, do the Warriors even care about the playoffs?
Anyone who watched them jog back on defense, ball-watch and fail to make the extra pass might have wondered if this is already a lost season. The Warriors’ 53-point margin of defeat was the second-worst in franchise history behind a 63-point drubbing by the Lakers on March 19, 1972. Before Friday, Golden State hadn’t lost by more than 48 in nearly a half-century — even though those five decades were filled with plenty of ugly records.
What made Friday’s shellacking especially sobering was that it came against a team that entered the game almost completely out of the playoff picture at 18-30. Forced to relocate this season from Toronto to Tampa, Fla., because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Raptors hosted the Warriors having dropped 13 of their previous 14 games.
But without Green and guard Stephen Curry (sore tailbone), Golden State made Toronto look like the team that beat the Warriors in the 2019 NBA Finals. Completely out of sorts on both ends of the floor, Golden State entered halftime down 62-42, only to open the third quarter giving up a 37-7 run that put it at a 50-point deficit.
With an embarrassing loss assured with 3:17 left in the third quarter, the Warriors brought in forward Alen Smailagic — a seldom-used reserve who struggled at the recent G League bubble — off the bench. In the fourth, with little left to watch on the floor, Curry practiced karate moves on the sideline.
Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @Con_Chron
