Play reminiscent of champs, if result isn’t
PORTLAND, Ore. — At times this season, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has shown his team clips from Golden State’s recent dynasty in which players expertly exhibited all the fundamentals of the game: shooting, dribbling and, above all else, passing.
Kerr recognizes that his young group can’t rival the AllStarladen lineups in those highlights, but he wanted it to try channeling the same style of play — a spedup mix between Hickory High and the Harlem Globetrotters. In the Warriors’ 122112 loss to the Trail Blazers on Wednesday night at Moda Center, they came as close to that beautiful basketball as they have this season, only to extend their skid to five games.
This served as yet another reminder that, without Stephen Curry (left hand surgery) and Klay Thompson (left knee surgery), Golden State has little margin for error. Though the Warriors’ side of the box score
had plenty to like, they struggled to make stops down the stretch.
“We did a lot of good things,” Kerr said. “We made some mistakes at crucial times, but we’re growing. We’re learning, and you can’t fault the effort.”
After center Hassan Whiteside hit an 18foot jumper with 1:32 left to put the Blazers up 114105, Portland fans began to file toward the exits. The Warriors were left to ponder whatifs as they prepare to get a muchneeded win Friday in San Francisco over a 722 Pelicans team.
In addition to zeroing in on Wednesday’s late miscues in video study, Golden State will discuss all it did right against the Blazers: the offball movement, the extra passes, the wideopen jumpers. There were stretches when, if not paying close attention, observers might have mistaken this inexperienced Warriors team for the ones that reached five straight Finals.
Three nights after bemoaning its lack of effort in a blowout loss to the Kings, Golden State zipped the ball from player to player with so much speed that defenders were left scrambled, only fully grasping what had happened after a jumper was hoisted. The Warriors shot 16for38 (42.1%) from beyond the arc for their most made 3pointers in a game his season.
D’Angelo Russell (26 points) and Glenn Robinson III (17) each hit five of those, and Alec Burks (16) nailed four. They had tons of room to operate as they curled off screens and executed
Kerr’s motion principles. After piling up 20 turnovers against Sacramento, Golden State finished Wednesday with 24 assists and only eight giveaways.
Sensing the chance at a rare victory, the Warriors ratcheted up their aggression and corralled 17 offensive rebounds as they outscored the Blazers 2711 in secondchance points. But in a season defined by adversity, Golden State often has made important strides, only to be undone when it mattered most. Wednesday was no exception.
“There have been some games in the season that just get away from us and we try to fight our way back, but we can’t play uphill the whole game,” center Marquese Chriss said. “It comes down to managing the game.”
After Robinson hit a 3pointer to cut the Warriors’ deficit to 109105 with 3:47 left, Golden State surrendered a 3pointer to CJ McCollum and a jumper to Whiteside. Those were big enough missteps to help seal the Warriors’ 19th loss in 22 games. McCollum (30 points) and Damian Lillard (31 points), perhaps the Western Conference’s top backcourt duo with Curry and Thompson sidelined, made up exactly half of Portland’s offense.
If Golden State wants a measure of solace, it needs only to look at the schedule. The Pelicans, who will arrive at Chase Center on Friday having lost 13 of their past 14 games, should offer a much bigger margin for error than the Blazers did.
“I think down the stretch, there’s a couple of things we could correct,” Robinson said. “We’re going to watch the film to learn and try to get better.”