The Warriors scored 128 points Monday night on the back of Stephen Curry’s remarkably efficient 40-point performance (61/63/100 shooting splits). The world’s greatest shooter hit 10 threes for the twenty-third time in his career. These ingredients would typically convert to a dominant win by the dubs. Not this season, as the team fell 128-137 (yes...137) to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Warriors are severely lacking any semblance of a consistent identity on the road – especially on the defensive end of the floor. Despite the third best defensive rating at home this season (110.0) behind only the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers, the Dubs are 16th in DRTG on the road. Sure, this may be in part due to Wiggins' absence and GPII’s lingering abdominal injury that has prevented him from seeing the floor in blue and gold this season, but based on the eye test, even 16th feels generous.
With Stephen Curry’s return on Sunday vs. the Lakers, you would expect the rest of the roster to play as hard – if not harder – than they were when their superstar was out for 11 games. But, as has been the case all season, this team expects Steph to do it all. Curry tried to practically will the Warriors to a win Tuesday night, while everybody else threw up the white flag. The Thunder are a solid offensive team full of young energy, but 137 points against a supposed “contender” is far too many.
The common narrative amongst fans is that there is trouble brewing in the locker room. What’s more likely is that these issues have been present all season, but they’re just becoming more apparent now as frustration builds around the team’s inability to win on the road (7-25!). Draymond Green’s attitude after Jordan Poole waving him off vs. the Thunder wasn’t just unacceptable – it represents a leader who has given up on his team. As a fan it’s disappointing… but can you blame him?
The front office and coaching staff (particularly Steve Kerr) have been unable to agree on many of the main issues facing the team and its future, and it has become frustratingly obvious that the construction of the current Warriors roster is half-assed.
Some seem to think that the “two-timeline plan” succeeded, but that isn’t the case. The Dubs’ championship roster last year included proven players like Otto Porter Jr., Nemanja Bjelica, and GPII – all of which are not or have not been present this year. This year, young players are more plentiful on the roster. Yet, they still haven’t gotten a chance to develop (see James Wiseman) because the vets aren’t ready to throw it all away to help a younger core learn the game and play through their mistakes.
Joe Lacob wants to have his cake and eat it too. Using your number two overall draft pick on a player who has next to zero high-level competitive basketball experience rather than trading the asset for a game ready vet or two doesn’t exactly scream win now. The Big 3 are fed up with ownership’s lack of faith in their title window, and the young talent is walking on thin ice because they’re afraid to make mistakes. The onus doesn’t fall in the players here – the vets nor the young guys; it falls on the billionaire who thinks he’s above the system. There’s a reason no team has ever pulled off what Lacob is attempting.
The Warriors have been able to cover up their unhappiness at home with the crowd behind them – pretending as if everything is okay. But once this team goes on the road and the opponent makes a run with fans taunting to boot, the cracks begin to show. As Steph said following Monday night’s loss to the Thunder, “emotions are all over the place.”
Everybody is expecting the Warriors to flip a switch, but there are simply too many switches to flip. Even if one switch is flipped on, there’s still six more on standby. To make the existing issues worse, the Warriors’ approach has been to chuck up 50+ threes per game, which conveys lazy basketball. To exemplify this, Jordan Poole is shooting just 33.3% from the field and 25.4% from three – on 8 attempts per game – since the all-star break. Time is running out for the Warriors to find themselves.
Watch for Stephen Curry to come out hot once again as the Dubs face off against Dillon Brooks and the Ja-less Memphis Grizzlies this afternoon at 4:30pm PST to close out the road trip. Draymond released a heated (and hilarious) response on his podcast yesterday (he’s still doing that thing?) to Brooks’ jabs, so tensions are sure to be as high as ever. Let’s see if the rest of the team can step up to the plate.
