Warriors hope to escape rut with run of tough games ahead.
Key stretch of five games in 10 days for Golden State before All-Star break refuge
OAKLAND >> The Warriors are fried from the mental exhaustion of three consecutive seasons that went all the way through the NBA Finals. They are bored with these mid-season games of such little significance.
Add it up and you get two losses in the past three games.
Much as the Warriors wish the All-Star break were today, rather than 10 days from now, they must keep grinding. According to coach Steve Kerr, Draymond Green told ‘em so
during a recent meeting.
“‘Let’s go into the break in good fashion,’ ” Kerr recalled Green saying. “‘That will make the break even more fun. You’ll feel rejuvenated a little. Then you can come back strong.’ ”
The Warriors will have more reason this week to feel motivated. They may still miss the adrenaline rush that postseason offers. Yet, the Warriors (4112) have a four-game homestand this week that will
include two playoff-bound teams: the Oklahoma City Thunder (30-24) on Tuesday and the San Antonio Spurs (34-21) on Saturday. Golden State will then travel to Portland to play the Trail Blazers (29-24) on Feb. 14, a day before the NBA All-Star break.
“The excuse we had last week is no longer an excuse,” Kerr said. “We should feel like this is a week we can take advantage of and be alert going into the break.”
After having the day off on Sunday, the Warriors had what Kerr called a “good practice” on Monday. After attending Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis, Warriors guard Stephen Curry returned and fully participated. After going to the funeral services for former NBA teammate Rasual Butler, so did Warriors reserve forward David West. And after ranking 26th out of 30 NBA teams in the past month in defensive rating (109.6), the Warriors spent Monday’s practice going over defensive concepts and fundamentals.
“We’re trying to get back to building habits,” Kerr said. “We had some bad habits of late.”
Since Curry returned from a sprained right ankle that kept him sidelined for 11 games, the Warriors have ranked 21st in turnovers per game (14.9). During their recent 1-2 trip in Utah, Sacramento and Denver, the Warriors also averaged 19.7 turnovers per contest. And at Monday’s practice, Kerr alerted his players that the Warriors have had more possessions than their opponents only twice out of the past 17 games following Curry’s original return.
“You just got to have a certain level of care about what you’re doing,” Curry said. “Obviously, everybody wants to shoot the ball well and we want to have those moments during the game where the ball is moving side to side and everybody is getting the ball. It’s a beautiful style of basketball. But things that go into having an edge is the level of care, intensity and mental focus.”
Kerr has often preached about such qualities, arguing that having
an “edge” has helped the Warriors rank in the top five in defensive efficiency the past four seasons.
“I’d like to see us come back after the All-Star break to really turn it up,” Kerr said. “But for now, we’ll talk about the issues and not grind them to death.”
But with the recent run of uninspired play, Curry sensed that, “it can’t wait that long.”
“I never like giving ourselves an out. I feel like we hold ourselves to a higher standard,” Curry said. “Two banners up and we change the culture around here on what it means to be a winning team consistently. There’s a little fight in that human nature with four years into this grind.”
• Four of the Warriors’ main players will not rest during the NBA AllStar break. That is because Curry, Kevin Durant, Green and Klay Thompson will play in the All-Star game on Feb. 18 in Los Angeles. Therefore, Kerr said those guys do not have to report to practice until Feb. 21 so “that will give them a couple of days to maybe go sit on a beach somewhere.”
Curry said, “You’ve got to find
whatever it is personally that gets you to a solid state of mind and feeling good about yourself. Whatever you need to fill that tank up coming back to the break. It’s a different challenge, yes. But it’s nothing that we can’t handle.”
• Forward Kevon Looney found himself with half of a tooth missing after taking an elbow from Denver Nuggets guard Torrey Craig late in the third quarter of the loss to the Nuggets on Saturday night.
On Monday, however, the thirdyear forward’s smile was completely intact.
Looney said he got a root canal to fix the tooth Sunday. However, the procedure wasn’t finished because of swelling in this mouth. As a result, Looney said he’ll finish the procedure in “a couple of weeks.”
“The dentist did a great job,” Kerr said. “He looks as handsome as ever.”
Looney remained a bit confused over what happened on the play itself.
“I was shocked at how easily (the tooth) came out,” Looney said. “During the game I was pretty upset. I knew what happened, I kind of spit it out of my mouth but I was hoping it wasn’t mine.”
• The NBA G League has granted a protest by the Santa Cruz Warriors and ordered the final 17.5 seconds of their loss to Iowa to be replayed.
Golden State’s affiliate protested its 116-113 loss on Jan. 19 after being incorrectly assessed a technical foul for calling an excessive timeout. The Warriors should have been granted a “reset timeout,” a rule in the G League allowing teams to advance the ball without calling time and stopping play.
The Wolves made the technical free throw, then two more after Santa Cruz fouled intentionally to take a 114-111 lead.
The G League says Monday that the sequence unfairly impacted the game and ordered it to be restarted tied at 111 with Santa Cruz in possession of the ball.
The replay will take place March 23 in Santa Cruz before the teams’ regularly scheduled game.