Suddenly, nothing’s easy for Warriors
Skid nearly hit four versus 76ers
OAKLAND, CALIF. Sure, it’s a little strange for Steve Kerr to be talking about how his Golden State Warriors must regain momentum in March.
They are the NBA’s top team, after all. Yet having lost three straight and on the brink of another defeat Tuesday night before rallying to beat the lowly Philadelphia 76ers and snap the skid, Golden State realizes nothing is coming easily right now.
“This is how it goes, but it’s so foreign to us for the last couple years,” Kerr said Wednesday. “I think Cleveland’s in a stretch just like us right now, but the focus is on us right now because nobody’s used to us being in this position. That’s fine. It’s kind of good for us to go through it, through the adversity.”
Draymond Green took a moment during a second-quarter timeout Tuesday to remind his teammates how hard it’s going to be the rest of the way for last year’s runner-up, especially having lost five of seven and seeing two-time reigning MVP Stephen Curry miss open three-pointers he almost always makes. Curry is in a bit of a shooting funk, having gone 26 for 89 from long range in his last eight games.
“Just continue to remind guys that we’ve been in a little bit of a rut. The only way to change that is to grind yourself out, grind your way out of it. Like I said, it’s not going to be pretty,” Green said. “The shots just aren’t going to fall. That’s just the way the game works. You don’t go into a rut and then come out and hit 20 threes. It just don’t work like that.”
The Warriors picked up their defence, finally hit some timely shots and barely held off Philadelphia 106-104.
“If we had lost that game, we’d be in here this morning, everybody would be feeling bad,” Kerr said. “It’s hard to build momentum from a loss. So you get one win after three straight losses, it changes the mood and you get to learn from it and then hopefully you do it again and build the momentum.”
Golden State lost leading scorer Kevin Durant to a sprained knee during its recent road trip, which featured a pair of cross-country flights, one game back in Oakland then a trip to Minnesota and San Antonio for a back-to-back. Eight games, eight cities, 13 days — so who can blame the Warriors for being exhausted and road weary after that grind?
Now, they are home for 11 of the final 16 with the raucous Oracle Arena crowd behind them. As much as Golden State worked to adjust to Durant’s arrival at the beginning of the season, now it’s about figuring out how to endure without K.D.
“It’s quite an adjustment for us to be honest to playing without K.D.,” centre Zaza Pachulia said.
“If you guys remember when we first got together in October, it didn’t look this pretty. There were still a lot of miscues and we weren’t on the same page, we were trying to figure out. That’s what’s going on right now, too. Hopefully it’s going to come back.”