BOX score

SAN FRANCISCO – The good vibes that had carried the Warriors through the weekend were dashed Monday night.

The Cleveland Cavaliers, the NBA’s best team this season, rolled into Chase Center and had a little early fun before turning on the boosters and leaving the Warriors with a 113-95 loss.

Six Warriors scored in double figures, none reached the 20-point mark. Moses Moody led the way with 19 points, followed by Jonathan Kuminga with 18 and Trayce Jackson-Davis with 16.

Cleveland’s backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland outscored Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Dennis Schröder 48-23.

After a feel-good win over the Phoenix Suns on Saturday, the Warriors are back looking for solutions to such persistent problems as botched possessions, missed layups and defensive errors.

This is the second straight season Golden State has been defeated by Cleveland in the two-game season series.

Here are three observations from a game that saw the Warriors (16-16) fall to .500:

The violator falls into a coma

The autopsy for this loss begins with the second quarter, where Golden State’s offense went underground and stayed there.

To be fair, neither team scored a field goal until Andrew Wiggins drained a floater with 7:33 left in the half. From that point on it was all Cavaliers. They moved into the lead by outscoring Golden State 20-8 over the remainder of the half.

How bad was it for the Warriors? They scored 11 points in the quarter, their lowest total this season. They shot 4 of 24 from the field and missed all eight of their 3-point shots. And it wasn’t due to great defense from the Cavaliers, as they couldn’t make open shots at all three levels of the game – even failing to score a single point from Cleveland’s five turnovers in the quarter.

Nine different Warriors got minutes in the quarter, and only two – Andrew Wiggins and Kuminga – made field goals. The other seven achieved a total of 0 of 13.

That was the abyss, it doesn’t get any deeper than that.

Oh, buddy

Buddy Hield’s downward slide continues and is approaching the critical phase.

Hield missed open 3-pointers, missed layups and finished the game with two points on 1 of 8 shooting, including 0 of 3 from long range.

That’s how it went for Hield, who went 0-of-7 against the Suns on Saturday. He has cooled down significantly since he applied for the title of Sixth Man of the Year early on with his great shot. If Buddy doesn’t score, he’s not effective.

In the seven games since his 27-point outburst in a win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Dec. 8, Hield shot 27 of 78 (34.6 percent) from the field, including 15 of 55 (27.3 percent) from distance.

Coach Steve Kerr expressed confidence two hours before game time that Hield would get his ball back. The story goes that one of the league’s best deep shooters isn’t going to stay in the fridge.

That’s where Hield is now, and it’s hard on the eyes. Harder on the second unit.

A nice start is lost

The Warriors certainly remember the first meeting between the two teams on November 8th, when the Cavs jumped out to a 20-2 lead with less than five minutes to play, triggering a rout.

There would be no repeat.

The Warriors played quickly and powerfully from the start, took the lead by seven points (16:9) in the first five minutes and maintained their lead well into the second quarter.

Golden State forced four turnovers in the first seven minutes and dominated the game despite Cleveland’s size advantage, with Trayce Jackson-Davis grabbing eight rebounds in the first quarter, the most in any quarter of his career.

The Warriors executed the offense as planned and with consistent ball movement, recording eight assists in the first quarter and all eight players who took the court scored at least one field goal.

However, a good quarter doesn’t win a basketball game.

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