(AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
Part of Mark Jackson‘s culture instilled in the Golden State Warriors the last two to three years has included an opportunity to let players “be who they are”. Like most platitudes in basketball, it’s a double-edged sword. And this recent road trip, with a bad performance in Houston, followed by a redeeming one in Memphis, followed by another bad one in last night’s loss to the Charlotte Bobcats, is proof in the pudding.
Without steady nine-year veteran Andre Iguodala (still on the shelf with a hamstring injury), the young Warriors aren’t taking non-marquee or otherwise depleted opponents seriously and are suffering the consequences of that “just showing up for work” mentality. Alas, overconfidence in looking at pre-game stats and matchups on paper and thinking things will be a cakewalk is a disease that comes with inexperience. The only way to learn is by making those mistakes — by losing.
Per PopcornMachine.net, the Warriors shot just 33% in the first quarter and missed all their three-point attempts, although they committed just two turnovers while getting outscored 27-21. In the second quarter, they committed a ghastly seven turnovers as the Bobcats netted another +6 to take a twelve-point lead into halftime at 53-41.
Adam Lauridsen described the intensity (or lack thereof) in the opening frames:
Both teams rolled out their regular game-plans — except the Warriors played theirs for the first 24 minutes with all the fire of a pre-game lay-up line.
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That lack of intensity — particularly by the perimeter defenders — led to a lot of easy shots for the Bobcats’ scorers. Gerald Henderson kept leaving Harrison Barnes, Klay Thompson and even Draymond Green in the dust in the first two-plus quarters. Thompson and Green finally had some success staying with him later in the game, but the damage was already done. Ramon Sessions got to the rim repeatedly when he was in the game and helped knock the Warriors into foul trouble, making them even more tentative at the defensive end. Kemba Walker and Ben Gordon used the extra daylight they gained from tentative defenders to get hot from the perimeter and keep the Bobcats ahead even during the Warriors’ comeback surge.
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The defensive struggles against Charlotte were more alarming than the instances over the last few weeks when low-post threats would abuse David Lee. Al Jefferson shot a lousy 5-16 and Josh McRoberts, despite blowing past Lee a couple of times, did little damage overall. (Andrew) Bogut and (Jermaine) O’Neal did a nice job forcing the Bobcats to find their points in their backcourt, but the Bobcats’ guards were up to the challenge and faced little resistance along the way. All the Warriors’ perimeter players share some of the blame. Barnes frequently looked lost against the smaller, faster Bobcat wings. Curry and Thompson looked as if they were in energy-conservation mode for much of the first half — maybe rightfully so, given the 46 minutes Jackson played both of them. (Draymond) Green increased the Warriors’ physicality, but again seemed a step slow against the smaller Bobcats. Toney Douglas was a non-factor, looking every bit as rusty as you would expect from a player missing the past few weeks. Overall, given the generally excellent defense from Thompson this season and improved defense from Barnes and Curry, it was a frustrating regression.
Rusty Simmons unearthed the lack of execution:
Jackson said it’s time to stop talking about slow starts, missed defensive assignments, grueling road trips and injuries. It’s time to start fixing it.
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The Warriors’ game plan was to switch on small-small pick-and-roll plays, but they didn’t. The players were told not to jump on Josh McRoberts’ pump fake at the three-point line, but they did. They watched video of Al Jefferson spinning away from the double-teaming defender and then let him do it live.
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“Each (of our) guys makes a mistake, and before you know it, they’ve got five guys on the court with a rhythm,” Jackson said. “I mean, we’re a defensive team. To give up 115 points to anybody, it’s unacceptable.”
Carl Steward quoted the same frustration from Curry and Green:
“We have to do whatever it takes to start games better and have momentum in the first half,” said Curry. “I can’t pinpoint any one area. All five guys just have to be alert — get every loose ball, every rebound — and set the tone for the game.”
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“We can’t keep getting in positions like that where we’re fighting back,” said Draymond Green. “If we can play like we did catching up at the start of the game, we can take a 12- to 15-point lead making those runs as opposed to having to claw back.”
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Green gave the Warriors good defensive minutes in the fourth quarter until he sprained his left ankle at the point the Warriors tied it and didn’t return. X-rays were negative, but it was a moderate sprain, and Green could be questionable for Dallas at home on Wednesday.
And yet, the Warriors still had a chance to win this game after climbing back late. Per Monte Poole‘s recap:
After a first half when none of the Warriors, including Curry and Thompson, did much of anything, the Splash Brothers carried them from the middle of the third quarter until the point at which the Warriors tied the game at 88-88 with 8:52 left.
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But the Warriors then committed three consecutive turnovers, allowing Charlotte to go on a 7-0 run for 95-88 lead with 6:50 remaining. The Bobcats maintained a lead the rest of the way.
It’s like the Warriors are a child going through puberty. There’s zits, chicken pox, and general growing pains. In a follow-up piece that declared the Dubs unfit for the “elite” mantle, Poole discovered a very telling quote from Klay:
Then there are periods during which the Warriors exhibit a puzzling defensive apathy. They opened the season gaining a reputation for finally adding this component, and now it often disappears.
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The Charlotte Bobcats, who entered the game as the lowest-scoring team in the NBA, averaging 89.6 points per came, tallied 64 points in the second half. A truly good team might have gone for 80.
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“Great teams are great on the road and at home,” Klay Thompson conceded. “Especially when you know you’re better than the other team.”
It’s exactly that kind of mindset that has befallen many an inexperienced basketball team, all over the world, at any level. For an up-and-coming team like the Warriors, anything else would have actually been more surprising.
You look at the Warriors and you see the potential — perhaps inevitability — to be great. You expect them to reach that ceiling and shatter it sooner rather than later. And then you remember. You’ve seen this at every level of basketball. Young teams don’t come in and shock the world. It takes time. That’s how it is for human beings. That’s what makes Naismith’s game so great.
And when you combine that with the “X” on their backs, as Bobcats analyst Dell Curry told LetsGoWarriors.com this summer after his father-son camp and while waiting for Seth Curry to finish his camp in Redwood City, you’ve got one roller-coaster season ahead of you.
Thus far, the Warriors haven’t acted like they’ve seen this coming. It’s as if they’ve been blindsided by their opponents’ secret #HumanTorch mode. Kemba Walker and Gerald Henderson are quality NBA players and when quality NBA players smell blood, they play the way, oh, a Warriors team against a 2012-13 Denver Nuggets team might, once doubt has crept in far enough in the prey’s mind.
As Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer reports:
“I love the challenge of playing against the best,” Walker (31 points) said of Curry, who grew up in Charlotte. “He made some tough shots (but) we came out of it with a win. That’s all I care about.” The Bobcats are 10-11 and on a two-game winning streak. They had blown double-digit leads last week on the road against the Miami Heat and Dallas Mavericks. Monday they never fell behind. (Bobcats head coach Steve) Clifford called this the best victory of the season because of the quality of the opponent.
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“Steph Curry made some shots that are unguardable,” Clifford said. “Sometimes you watch film and say, ‘This is what’s great about my job.’ ” Not so great that Clifford would want to coach against Curry every game, but Clifford was proud of how his team compensated for the loss of three players to injury. “They’re very hard to guard and our pick-and-roll coverages were so good,” Clifford said of the first half.
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