Myles Turner, Pacers, beat Steph Curry, Warriors 111-105

The Golden State Warriors once again found an opportunity to win a dramatic, close game. And once again they failed to do so, putting another number in a loss column that is quickly catching up with the win column.

Looking for a spark — or maybe just a matchup advantage — Steve Kerr turned again to a new starting lineup, with a backcourt of Steph Curry and Dennis Schröder paired with a frontcourt of Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis, plus wing Andrew Wiggins .

But for the most part, the starting lineup didn’t perform particularly well, with three of the five players having negative double-digit plus/minus: Wiggins (-15), Jackson-Davis (-17) and Schröder (-22) .

On the other hand, Kerr’s sharp words about the team’s young players needing to be smarter, more efficient and more selfless in deference to Curry seemed to have landed. Jonathan Kuminga — one of two players Kerr admitted the words were primarily intended for — had one of his best games of the year. The fourth-year wing easily led the team with 26 points, shot 9-for-16 from the field, got to the free throw line repeatedly (where he shot 6-for-9) and grabbed eight rebounds with four assists and just one turnover.

The other player on the receiving end of Kerr’s comments, Brandin Podziemski, also took his game up a notch with five points on four shots, six rebounds, two assists, three steals and no turnovers. Young Moses Moody returned from injury and while he didn’t put up many numbers on the stat sheet, he played well, especially on defense.

But it wasn’t enough for the Warriors on a night where Curry once again struggled. Steph dished out seven assists and tallied an impressive three blocks, but he finished with just 10 points while shooting just 2-for-13 from the field and had three turnovers.

Overall, the Warriors did a much better job of taking care of the ball in this game with just 11 turnovers. But they weren’t able to force opportunities out of Indy’s mistakes … while the Pacers turned the Warriors’ 11 turnovers into 13 points, Golden State got exactly zero points out of 12 Indiana giveaways.

That, combined with stellar performances from Myles Turner, Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Haliburton, was enough for the Pacers to pull out the win down the stretch, drop the Warriors to 15-13 and hand the Dubs their 10th loss in their last 13. game.

But we won’t have to wait long to see them try to get back in the win column as the Warriors will host Los Angeles Lakers Christmas Eve.