Is trouble brewing with Golden State?
Were those alarm bells going off for the Warriors over the weekend?
The team’s galling fourth-quarter collapse against the Grizzlies on Friday — its second in two weeks — led to its sixth loss of the season. It was the Warriors’ second loss to Memphis this season. And a frustrated Draymond Green yelled at Kevin Durant over a play late in regulation. Trouble in dominance city? “The alarm bells always ring louder when you lose,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said.
When the bells go off for the Warriors, it’s not just locally. The alert is sounded nationally for the team that was awarded the virtual championship last summer when it signed Durant. What’s wrong with the Warriors?
Before the season, Kerr asked for fans’ patience. He warned that it would take time to meld all the talent, to find a rhythm, to adapt the new roster.
Monday, when the Cavaliers come to town,
marks the midpoint of the season. The huge game is a rematch of the Christmas Day collapse in Cleveland, the aftermath heightened by the Cavs’ recent addition of Kyle Korver, a 43 percent three-point shooter.
Two days later, Durant’s old team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, returns to Oracle. Two huge matchups with all eyes turned to Oakland. To a team still finding its way.
“We’re still in this adjustment period, still trying things out, which is crazy,” Warriors forward David West said.
“It’s a different team. Different dynamics. It so happens we’ve got a lot of talent and that talent has been able to produce wins. But we’re still trying to figure things out. Where certain guys like to be. How to close games cleaner.”
The Warriors still have the best record in the league. But at times, their flaws have been exposed. Kerr makes it sound almost as if it’s all part of the plan.
“Last year, we had alarm bells that weren’t ringing loud enough because we were winning,” he said. “We had slippage down the stretch. But it’s hard to come in and practice when we’ve won 70 games.
“In a way, hard to get some of messaging across last year. It’s a little different this year. We’ve lost some games we should have won. We’ve had some trends that haven’t been great in the fourth quarter. We lost in the Finals last year. Those are all things that make it easier to message in current state.”
His players agree. Green, who got into Durant’s face near the end of Friday’s game, said as much.
“I’m happy we lost,” he said Friday. “There’s things we need to correct, the stuff you only notice in losses. I’m kind of thrilled.”
The dynamics of this season differ from those of the previous two. In Kerr’s first year, there was a freshness and excitement as a young team started to realize — both mentally and physically — its full potential. There was a buoyancy that went with the surprise of the journey.
Last season, an unchanged team was determined to prove its championship was valid. It slammed down the accelerator in a pursuit of history and didn’t let up. The toll was exhaustion, which showed in the playoffs. The goal wasn’t the process but to pile up as many wins as possible. And some of those wins easily could have been losses.
This season is different. It’s about blending talent, figuring out the process. It’s about walking the thin line between exerting dominance and preserving energy. The Warriors aren’t going all out every night. The trick is to figure out how to preserve energy without going into fourthquarter cruise control and letting the momentum slip away.
“We’ve been able to get away with closing games against lesser teams,” West said. “The biggest thing is ball care. Sometimes when you’ve got so many different options on the floor instead of being sound, you try to get the home run. Sometimes you just need to hit singles and doubles.”
Kerr is happy with what he sees: with the record, the statistics, the chemistry, with the way Durant has blended with the team, with the leadership roles players have taken. He is surprised his small unit has taken longer to jell but happy with the way his bench has clicked.
And he sounds OK with the losses. As startling as they might be to see.
“It’s all part of the package,” he said. “You just have to navigate the journey.”
The journey is almost halfway over. No time for alarm bells yet.