Warriors fall to Hornets as Draymond Green, D'Angelo Russell sit out injured

SAN FRANCISCO - Having lost two more starters to injury earlier in the day, Golden State coach Steve Kerr was in a remarkably pleasant mood considering his team’s fifth loss in six games to start the season.

Considering everything that’s happened so far, Kerr had good reason to smile.

The depleted and mostly inexperienced Warriors put together their best collective effort of the season and held a late lead before making a few costly errors down the stretch of a 93-87 loss to the Charlotte Hornets on Saturday night.

Baby steps, at the very least.

“Our guys played fantastic basketball and fought like crazy, and then their coach decided to screw things up at the end,” Kerr said. “We were right there. A couple things at the end if we could have executed a little bit better and if I maybe made a couple different decisions I think we would have been in good shape. Tough one but I’m really, really proud of the group.”

Kerr hasn’t had a whole lot to smile about this season, especially after his day began with news that Draymond Green will miss at least a few games with a torn ligament in his left index finger. D’Angelo Russell was also missing from Saturday’s game due to an ankle injury.

That left the Warriors looking more like a G League team than one that had won three titles in four years from 2015-18.

Golden State was so short-handed that Kerr jokingly asked a reporter before the game about his availability to play.

Turns out the Warriors, at least this version of the Warriors, did pretty well on their own for the most part.

Terry Rozier made a short ?go-ahead jumper, then added two free throws with 4.9 seconds left after missing three straight to help Charlotte hold on.

Dwayne Bacon scored 25 points while Rozier finished with 20 points and seven assists to help the Hornets win their second straight after back-to-back losses to the Lakers and Clippers.

Rozier felt Charlotte might have overlooked Golden State ?because of the Warriors’ injuries.

“I feel like we didn’t come out and treat it like we were playing the Lakers or Clippers just because of everything that has happened over there,” Rozier said. “We found a way to win. It was ugly, but we were able to pull it out in the end.”

Eric Paschall had a season-high 25 points for Golden State (1-5) while starting in place of the injured Green.

“I feel like we took a good step in the right direction as a team,” Paschall said. “Even though everybody’s out, just having fun. Today we did a good job of just going out there and having fun.”

Kerr was forced to use his sixth different lineup in as many games as a result of the injuries. The new-look Warriors seemed to relish the opportunity early, scoring a season-high 30 points in the first quarter.

But Golden State went cold down the stretch, was limited to two baskets over the final three minutes and committed a critical turnover trying to inbound the ball with 25 seconds remaining.