A five-game win streak at Chase Center had the Warriors dreaming of a turnaround. But a familiar nightmare on the road had some team leaders voicing frustration.
The Warriors’ 35th road loss Tuesday to Oklahoma City followed a familiar script: An early double-digit deficit, a hopeful comeback drowned by foul trouble and poor late-game execution. At Chase, Golden State rides that home court advantage to galvanizing victories, but they can’t seem to find such inspiration in front of a more hostile crowd.
After going 0-5 on their very first road trip, the team preached patience that the road record would correct itself. But now, with a 7-35 road record having lost seven straight, they may be running out of time to prove that they can win away from home.
“Always confident, that’s why we show up. You’d like to have something to show for it at some point,” Steph Curry told reporters. “Confidence never wavers, it’s just frustrating at times when you can’t get it done and have something that says, yeah, we know how to win on the road with this particular team. Another opportunity.”
That confidence is one advantage the Warriors might have over any other Western Conference team as the playoffs near and Golden State stares down the extreme likelihood of a run without home court advantage — and perhaps starting from the Play-In. It’s the kind of confidence justified by the defensive performance they put together during their most recent five-game win streak in which they approached match-ups with playoff-ready defensive schemes and saw dividends.
That all went out the window against the Thunder. They turned over the ball 21 times, the Thunder shooting 46% from 3 and 53% from the field for a total 137 points.
The defense thrives when every player on the court is completely in sync. And too often on Tuesday they found themselves late on rotations due to miscommunication.
Take, for instance, a play early in the fourth quarter with the Warriors down just six points. Curry and Draymond Green doubled Josh Giddey, who finished with a triple-double, at the baseline. But Giddey saw through the limbs a cutting Jalen Williams wide open under the basket for an easy dunk.
JaMychal Green was guarding Williams initially, but had to move to the perimeter to defend an open Ousmane Dieng. Donte DiVincenzo moved to the perimeter to guard an open Lu Dort, perhaps thinking Jordan Poole would stay in the paint. Instead, Poole shuffled into no-man’s land in the split second Williams cut for a bucket that sparked a Thunder 14-2 run to put the game essentially out of reach — despite Curry’s 40-point, 10-three night.
Those little mistakes have piled up. The Warriors have a 120.8 defensive rating on the road that’s the third-worst in the league behind bottom-feeding Houston Rockets (122.3) and San Antonio Spurs (122.3). and a 110.0 defensive rating at home this year that ranks third-best behind the Memphis Grizzlies (106.8) and Cleveland Cavaliers (108.3).
The Warriors have a chance to break their road losing streak on Thursday against a Memphis Grizzlies team now without their explosive superstar Ja Morant. Things won’t get any easier for a two-game trip back home against near unguardable Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks, then Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns. Then they’re back on the road to play the Los Angeles Clippers, Atlanta Hawks and Grizzlies again.
