Defeat elicits sobering reality
BOSTON — Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was hardly insulted when a Bostonarea reporter asked him pregame Thursday night what it’s like to know that bringing back Stephen Curry — one of the greatest players in NBA history — actually could hurt his team.
As the owner of the league’s worst record, Golden State recognizes that any win could worsen its chances of landing the No. 1 pick in June’s NBA draft. But as Kerr explained to the inquisitive reporter, “When you’re 1038, winning sounds really good.”
The problem for the Warriors is that factors out of their control — namely, injuries to Curry and Klay Thompson — have made victories elusive. In Golden State’s 119104 loss to the Celtics on Thursday, it delivered lackluster effort, landing on the wrong end of another lopsided result.
“I didn’t think we played particularly well tonight,” Kerr said. “Boston is very good defensively, and they put us in a lot of predicaments offensively.”
With two weeks until the AllStar break, the Warriors are navigating territory that would have seemed foreign a few months ago. A team coming off five straight Finals appearances has lost five consecutive games and 15 of its past 16.
Even if Curry returns from his broken left hand sometime in March as expected, the Warriors should be wellpositioned for a bottomthree record that would ensure them 14% odds of the No. 1 pick. The three teams tied for the nextworst mark — Atlanta, Cleveland and New York — each have three more wins than Golden State.
At this rate, the Warriors will finish the season 1765 to tie the 200001 team for the ugliest record in franchise history. What makes this so sobering is that, contrary to popular opinion, Golden State isn’t tanking.
With Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston gone, and Curry and Thompson injured, the Warriors have rolled out lineups stocked with unproven youngsters, littleknown journeymen and former G Leaguers. This leaves them with the slimmest margins for error.
In their latest defeat Thursday, the Warriors hung within striking distance for the first half, only to give up a 124 run to dig a 7254 hole midway through the third quarter. Nagging problems — botched boxouts, illadvised jumpers, a dearth of passes — kept Golden State from seriously threatening.
In addition to missing 27 3point tries, the Warriors were outrebounded 143 on the offensive glass. After center Daniel Theis hit a 3pointer to put Boston up 11192 with 5:07 left, Celtics fans, many of whom wore No. 24 or No. 8 Lakers jerseys to honor the late Kobe Bryant, began to file toward the exits.
“They are a topfive defense,” Warriors guard Damion Lee said. “They switch everything, try to beat you off your spots. It can be tough.”
Few could blame the injurythinned Warriors for having weary legs down the stretch. They labored to fight through screens, dealing with players — Gordon Hayward (25 points), Marcus Smart (21), Jayson Tatum (20) and Jaylen Brown (18) — who gave even Golden State’s dynastic teams trouble at times.
Without Curry and Thompson to space the floor, the Warriors tend to deviate from their movementheavy blueprint, watching as D’Angelo Russell forces isolation situations. His 22 points Thursday ended his first career fivegame stretch with at least 25 points.
More concerning for the Warriors is their continued lack of focus. Midway through the first quarter Thursday, forward Draymond Green got the ball on the sideline and, instead of passing to guard Jacob Evans, started dribbling upcourt.
Kerr could only chuckle. In a season loaded with adversity, the Warriors’ only available player from the three championshipwinning teams momentarily had forgotten how to play basketball.
Until Curry returns, Kerr has few ways to snap Golden State out of its rut. He’ll continue to preach energy and concentration in hopes that, one of these days, the opponent will make enough mistakes for the Warriors to seize a muchneeded win.
“We’ll go into the next game with a lot of confidence and just try to clean up some mistakes,” forward Glenn Robinson III said. “I think we are close to kind of breaking through.”