PHOENIX — Last year at this time, the Warriors were 12-2, boasting the best defense in the NBA while also leading the league in scoring.
But everything has changed..
While scoring hasn’t been an issue for Stephen Curry, who’s dropped 40-plus points in three of his last five games, the team as a whole has been inconsistent and out of sync on offense, which is impacting the Warriors’ play on the other end. The defense can’t get stops and is allowing 118.3 points per game, a 16.7-point increase from last November.
Golden State is 6-9 and 12th in the Western Conference standings. Despite playing more than half of their first 15 games outside the Bay, the Warriors have yet to win a road game — they are 0-8 — a precarious situation for the defending champs, who insist they’re not panicking.
Coach Steve Kerr didn’t mince words Wednesday night following the Warriors’ 130-119 loss to the Phoenix Suns that undermined a 50-point masterpiece by Curry. Kerr said he has “failed” as the coach to bring the group together and “give them a vision that they can collectively shoot for.”
But the responsibility doesn’t lie solely on him. Everybody needs to be held accountable.
Unselfish play and commitment to both ends of the court, to each other and to winning — characteristics that defined this winning team for the better part of the last decade — are lacking.
“There’s no collective grit,” Kerr said. “And when you don’t have grit, the game is really easy for the other team.”
Kerr compared his team’s play to a Drew League game, indicating guys aren’t focused on the game’s fundamentals and playing as a unit. He didn’t offer much insight on why that is, given that 10 of the team’s 16 players (that includes Andre Iguodala, who has yet to play this season, and guys on two-way contracts) were on last year’s title team. Perhaps it’s exhaustion from last summer’s NBA Finals run or lingering tension from the preseason incident Kerr called the biggest crisis of his Warriors’ tenure.
“We need to figure out what it’s going to take to win and figure out what everybody needs to do differently, more consistently,” Curry said. “Forget the road record, you can’t even find a sustainable period of success when habits start to form and we’re in a position where we’re feeling good about ourselves. We’re still searching and chasing a little bit.”
Defense was yet again an issue for the Warriors, who’ve surrendered at least 125 points in six games this season. The Suns, playing without Chris Paul, Landry Shamet and Cameron Johnson, still managed to light it up beyond the arc. They made more than half of their 40 attempted 3-pointers and shot 51.6% from the field. Phoenix scored 73 points in the first half — its second time doing so this season against the Warriors.
The Warriors also haven’t been able to find offensive rhythm. Klay Thompson remains in a slump, shooting 35.1% overall and 33% from 3-point range, both career lows. He scored 19 points Wednesday, but it took 17 shots (and four free throws) to get there.
Jordan Poole has also been spotty this season. He had eight assists Wednesday, but scored only two points in 27 minutes, missing all five of his shots from the field.The young players are struggling to get playing time as Kerr tightened the rotation in an attempt to get the season back on track. Two-way forward Anthony Lamb has jumped the players touted as potential future foundational pieces such as Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga. James Wiseman has been sent to Santa Cruz..
“We have to be honest with ourselves,” Curry said. “We’re not playing the way we should. What are we going to do about it?”
Kerr said the issues go beyond the numbers. The Warriors have become known as a team that plays with joy, competitive desire and togetherness. That has been absent. You can see it in the subdued reaction on the bench, even after big plays.
“If you’re not right emotionally, spiritually, you will get exposed every night,” Kerr said. “And that’s where we are right now.”
It’s not as simple as just putting the five best players on the court and letting them work. Kerr wishes it were. But these guys are human beings, too, with complex emotions and life going on outside basketball.
“Every single player has a story, has something that’s going on in their life,” he said. “And if the group finds a way to put all that in the back seat and commit to just winning the game, the magic can happen.”
Perhaps one of the biggest tests of Curry’s leadership is ahead of him. He’ll play a big part, along with Iguodala and Kevon Looney, in helping the staff figure out how to shift the team’s mentality and get every guy in the locker room on the same page.
“Yeah, I’m scoring great, trying to be efficient, going to keep doing that,” Curry said, “but there’s a collective mindset around how I need to help everybody kind of get into the right frame of mind to help to win, and I’m ready for that challenge to try to figure that out.”
The Warriors, who’ve won four of the last eight NBA Finals, deserve the benefit of the doubt to right the ship. They stumbled at times last season and still went on to win a championship. But the clock is ticking.
