Warriors Home Not-So-Sweet Home And Playing Down To Their Opponents

Warriors Home Not-So-Sweet Home And Playing Down To Their Opponents (AP Photo/Tony Avelar)

On January 28th, the Golden State Warriors got a reality check when they played the Washington Wizards at home. The Warriors’ offense was near non-existent for the whole game, and they ended up losing to the Wizards 88-85.

The Warriors got another reality check on Tuesday night against a team they should’ve beaten, the Charlotte Bobcats. In this game though, they didn’t lose by just a small margin. They were outplayed all game, and they got blown out by the Bobcats 91-75.

The Warriors have a bad habit of playing up or down to their competition. They are playing stellar, near perfect basketball against the best teams, such as the Portland Trail Blazers, the Los Angeles Clippers, et. al.

However, they are struggling to beat teams that they should be beating like the Wizards and Bobcats.

Andre Iguodala spoke about this unfortunate trend after Tuesday’s loss.

“They just played really hard. You’ve got to realize that anybody can win in this league. You’ll get bit a few times if you continue to fall asleep on them. So this has to be a lesson learned for any of those other teams coming in here with a lesser record. We’ve got to keep that in mind as well going into these games.”

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News believes that the Warriors match up better against teams that have superstars versus teams who have some solid rotation players.

“Notably, the Warriors match-up particularly well with Miami and Oklahoma City probably in large part because of Curry, Lee and Iguodala. The Curry/Lee pick-and-roll destroys teams that don’t have a great defensive PG and Iguodala, when healthy, can guard Kevin Durant and LeBron James reasonably well.
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But against teams that don’t have that one guy? It just seems to get trickier for the Warriors to scramble to defend multiple scorers, and some of that has to point to Iguodala, Lee and Thompson.”

In addition to their tendency to play down to opponents that they should easily beat, they also aren’t taking advantage of this homestand.

For a team that has such a loud, supportive, and energetic crowd, the Warriors aren’t winning as much as they should at home.

LetsGoWarriors had this to report from Andrew Bogut:

Being only 14-9 this season and losers of five of their last seven at #Roaracle has been just as mind-boggling.
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“I said from the start of this homestand that you gotta be careful you don’t get too comfortable at home,” Bogut said, “There’s a different focus on the road. Sometimes it’s more of a business trip. You’re not a your home, you don’t have the distractions you usually have. You have to bring that same mindset that we have on our road games for our home games.”

Jermaine O’Neal spoke with media after practice yesterday about it. Vic Tafur of the San Francisco Chronicle writes:

Golden State not only has gone cold shooting, but has lost five of its past eight home games. Four of those setbacks were to losing teams. That’s simply no way to behave in front of a home crowd that has filled Oracle Arena for 61 straight games.
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“That’s something that we’ve got to relish, because there are a lot of arenas that are half empty and have good teams,” O’Neal said after practice Wednesday. “This arena is packed every single night and we’ve got to take advantage of that. That’s got to be our Superman Juice.”
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“Our fans are waiting to get crazy,” O’Neal said. “They are waiting to get loud. And sometimes we just don’t give them (anything) to cheer for.
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“I don’t care if we’re down 15, if we score two straight baskets, it’s going to get loud and crazy, and that energizes us. … We should be ashamed of ourselves for (Tuesday) night.”

The Warriors have been a pretty strong road team this season, as they have a 15-11 record on the road. At home, the Warriors are 14-9. They have also lost five of their past seven games at home.

Mark Jackson spoke after Tuesday’s loss about how there were several similarities between their loss to the Bobcats and their loss to the Wizards about a week ago.

“Those are the teams that have turned the corner and played well. We have not played well. Washington outplayed us and Charlotte outplayed us. They are more than capable of doing that. We are not good enough to think because we are at home that things will work out. We have to play at a certain level and we did not tonight. That’s the disappointing part.”

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