Not enough practice reason for 1-2 start?
DALLAS — Warriors forward Kevin Durant shook his head, ran his palms over his face and glanced across the FedEx Forum floor.
“I’m sorry, Steph!” Durant shouted, pounding his chest with his fist. “My bad!”
Midway through the second quarter Saturday night, Durant fumbled a pinpoint pass from Curry out of bounds. In that moment, with the Warriors on their way to a 111-101 loss to Memphis, frustration already was mounting. Golden State seemingly had difficulty reconciling its inane mistakes with its superior talent.
As the defending NBA champions stand 1-2, many are puzzled: What’s wrong with the Warriors? Those inside the organization, however, know precisely what troubles them. Because of a lack of practice time in preseason, Golden State is behind schedule, both physically and mentally.
“Obviously, if you ask anybody in this locker room, nobody was expecting us to play at the level where we left off last year,” center Zaza Pachulia said. “That’s normal. Maybe that’s even good. We need to work harder to prepare ourselves for April, May, June.”
The Warriors, who play at Dallas (0-3) on Monday night, had an itinerary crammed with off-the-court obligations that left them with only two practices during their weeklong tour of China. Golden State had eight days after returning to the Bay Area to prepare for its season opener, but it spent much of that time overcoming jet lag.
Regardless of how much the Warriors practice, they know that maintaining playoff-level focus will be tricky. This is a team that figures to be favored whenever it steps on the court. Though Golden State is most concerned with being ready for another championship push, its opponents are motivated by the chance to dethrone the league heavyweight — even if only for a regular-season win.
“We’re obviously not ready,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “We knew that. We’re not ready to put things together.”
The Warriors squandered a double-digit lead in their loss to Houston. In Friday’s win at New Orleans, they gave up 39 first-quarter points before finding their defensive footing. And, after being ranked among the NBA’s top five in defensive efficiency each of the previous three seasons, the Warriors have allowed 117.7 points per game.
After a training camp devoted to making more accurate passes, Golden State has committed 52 turnovers through three games. Durant, whose second-quarter fumble was hardly his lone silly turnover Saturday, has accounted for 19 of those giveaways.
“I’m turning the ball over at a high rate, and I’m really pissed at myself about it,” Durant said. “You’ve just got to hold onto the ball, make the correct pass. I think I’m just rushing. I’ve just got to calm down, settle down.”
It hasn’t helped the Warriors that Curry has struggled to defend without fouling. In the losses to Houston and Memphis, his early foul trouble forced Kerr to adjust rotations on the fly. Groups were on the floor that had not been used together in practice.
A good chunk of Curry’s 10 fouls this season have come on reach-ins. When Kerr kept him in the game after Curry was called for his third foul midway through the second quarter Saturday, Curry took less than two minutes to get whistled again.
“I’ve just got to stop being stupid, to be honest,” Curry said. “Just trying to reach and get a steal. When I see the ball, getting a little greedy and just swiping at the ball. … That’s on me. I’ve got to do better.”
The last time Golden State opened a season 1-2 was 2009, when that Don Nelsoncoached team went 26-56 and missed the playoffs for the 15th time in 16 years.
“We’re fine, man. We’re fine,” Durant said. “We’ve just got to stay positive, not hang our heads and move on. We’ve got a long season ahead of us.”