Warriors can’t rely too much on Curry
Opening loss to Nets showed how much this team and Curry miss Thompson
Let’s just call the Warriors’ season debut inauspicious.
It’s too early to push the panic button — no judgment can be reasonably levied on these Warriors until Draymond Green hits the floor — but you also cannot ignore the fact that just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong in the Dubs’ 125-99 blowout loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday night.
The contest was never close, as the Nets’ dynamic duo of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant (remember him?) took whatever they wanted against a porous Warriors’ defense.
All while Stephen Curry tried to outdo both stars himself. Curry had no choice. He received no help on Tuesday.
And if this trend doesn’t change, fast, it could be a long season in the Bay.
Complain about the offensive game plan or play-calling all you want, Warriors fans — you should know by now that players win games.
It doesn’t matter if Curry is on or off the ball to start a possession when the Warriors’ best offense requires him to dribble between four defenders and make a layup as he takes a forearm to the neck. And Steve Kerr can’t call a play that will fix Andrew Wiggins’ footwork or allow Kelly Oubre to make a shot that’s not a dunk.
Curry was able to create space for his teammates on Tuesday — the gravity
was there — at least in the first half, when he was trying his hardest. His teammates weren’t able to do anything with it.
Man, did the Warriors miss Klay Thompson.
Wiggins is being asked to slide into the No. 2 role in the Warriors’ offense, behind Curry, with the loss of Thompson this season.
But Wiggins’ performance was reminiscent of a different kind of No. 2 in the season opener, shooting 4 of 16 from the floor, and posting as many turnovers (four) as rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks combined. All this, while the Nets dared him to shoot it. When he was asked to lead the team with Curry on the bench, he was perhaps the fourth- or fifth-best player on the floor. The Warriors were outscored
by 28 points with him playing, but you could have convinced anyone who watched the game that the number was, in fact, higher.
Oubre — who was acquired in the aftermath of Thompson’s injury — was only marginally better, missing all seven of his shots that were not at the rim while also missing four shots at the rim as well. But at least he had a cool dunk and pulled down some rebounds.
Of course, against a team like the Nets, the Warriors’ struggles were more pronounced. Durant looks like the player who won two NBA Finals MVPs in Oakland — arguably the greatest scorer in NBA history. Irving’s handles and shot creation take a backseat to few in history. The Nets’ depth is prodigious, too. Their second unit could probably compete for a playoff spot in the East. That team, with a bit of refinement on the defensive side, can win a title this season.
So while the Warriors were bad on Tuesday, I can say with
certainty that not every game will look that bad — not every opponent will be as good as the Nets. (Though in the Western Conference, a lot of teams will come close.)
But the Nets’ excellence can’t come close to solely explaining why the Warriors looked light years behind Tuesday.
It was reminiscent of the start of last season. And if it’s a sign of what’s to come this season, the Warriors’ campaign could well be as miserable as the last.
The performances of Wiggins and Oubre have to be levels better for the Warriors to compete — with or without Green in the lineup. If one of those two is not performing, someone else on the roster needs to take their place.
Curry cannot do it by himself. He’s not built for it. That’s not where his genius lies.
It’s a team game, and Curry is a team player. He can break down an entire five-man defense by merely moving around the court. But when his teammates can’t do anything with what he gives them, he has no choice but to take matters into his own hands.
You’ll get some highlights that way, but that’s not an efficient way to score. Nor is it a sustainable model for Curry.
He’s not James Harden. That’s been a good thing over the last decade.
Then again, there’s a reason the Warriors went out and landed Durant — a player who can get buckets without an offense — back in 2016.
Green will help create more chaos — more space — but without someone else stepping up and knocking down shots, whether that be Wiggins, Oubre, rookie James Wiseman or someone on the bench, Curry will have to put up a championship-level effort to win regular-season games.