Iguodala’s absence was glaring in Game 4 loss
OAKLAND >>The Warriors might want to reconsider their playoff slogan after a 95-92 loss to the Rockets in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals Tuesday night.
You know the slogan
— it’s been emblazoned everywhere over the last few weeks: Strength in Numbers.
Having strength in numbers would seem to indicate that the Warriors have a deep, solid bench that can provide a positive impact in every game.
That was the case in years past. That was the case earlier this season, even. But in Game 4, it was obvious that the Warriors do not have “Strength in Numbers”.
And, as such, this series is tied at 2-2 and the Rockets have home-court advantage for what has become a three-game series. With Andre Iguodala sidelined Tuesday with a left knee contusion, the Warriors had an eight-man rotation in a pivotal contest, and that lack of depth manifested in the fourth quarter against a Houston team hellbent on exhausting Golden State.
The plan worked. And it highlighted how much the Warriors missed Iguodala.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr played Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green for the entirety of the third quarter. That move that paid dividends at the
time, as a patented Curry flurry gave Golden State a 10-point lead, but it came back to sting in the fourth as all four players — the Warriors’ four most important players — looked exhausted in the final frame.
Green, who played all but two minutes and 36 seconds of Tuesday’s game, had his hands on his knees during the middle of a defensive possession early in the fourth. He finished the quarter.
“Fatigue is not an excuse for either side, so that will never creep into your mind,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said.
But it certainly crept into the box score.
Golden State scored 12 points in the fourth quarter. No, that’s not a typo. They scored 12 points in the final quarter of a putaway game.
Meanwhile the Rockets, happy to see the pace of the game slow down to a slow crawl, took advantage of the Warriors’ exhaustion by playing physical defense and hitting big
shots down the stretch to claim a 3-point win.
“This is the highest level we’ve played defensively, without a doubt,” Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni said. “They got a little tired in the fourth quarter, and that’s because they felt us for three quarters… That’s what the formula is, and we’ll see if we can do that when we get to Houston.”
I haven’t seen the Warriors that tired late in a game since the fourth quarter of Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. Unsurprisingly, the result of that game and Tuesday’s were the same. (It’s actually rather frightening how similar those quarters were.)
Had the Warriors won Tuesday, their effort in the fourth quarter would have been deemed heroic by some — exhausted and facing a suddenly relentless Rockets team, the Warriors found the will to win. Instead, the narrative out of this game was that they choked it away.
And, truth be told, it was a bit of a choke job. No matter how tired the Warriors might have been, the Rockets were tired too. They played only seven players and four of
their starters played 41 minutes or more. But they executed while the Warriors flailed around.
“I felt like in the fourth quarter we just ran out of gas,” Kerr said. “But yeah, they just outplayed us in the fourth and they earned it.”
Iguodala provides so many great things for the Warriors — his elite defense and pace-setting abilities were missed as the Rockets climbed back from both a 12-0 opening deficit and the 10-point hole the Warriors’ late third-quarter run produced.
But more than anything else, the Warriors missed having a wing who could give them 20, 25, even 30 solid, competent minutes.
The Warriors started Kevon Looney in Iguodala’s place and the Warriors’ great start appeared to validate that decision, but as Looney found himself in foul trouble, it was clear that the Warriors had no one else to go to on the bench.
Jordan Bell — who had played 50 total minutes in the postseason before Tuesday, most of them in garbage time — had to play 18 minutes in Game 4. Most of them were
good, but there’s a reason why the Warriors weren’t giving him that kind of run in the first three games of the series.
Nick Young was downright unplayable — lost on defense and irrational on offense. Still, with Iguodala out, he had to play 12:30.
And Shaun Livingston, who had been so solid for the Warriors in the first three games of this series, could not take his game to another level on Tuesday. The Rockets’ were extra physical with the guard in Game 4 and he scored only four points and was a game-worst minus-15.
Outside of two minutes from Quinn Cook, that was the Warriors’ bench.
Even with the shortened rotations in the postseason, that kind of bench play is simply not enough in a critical game like Tuesday’s. And you can’t even pin the loss on Kerr — the man who handled the rotations. What was he going to do? Play Cook longer? Go to JaVale McGee?
No one in their right mind would have advocated for him to sub anyone out in the third quarter when the Warriors were opening up their lead.
No, Kerr was stuck between a rock and a hard place Tuesday, and he ended up crushed. The Warriors’ roster depth was thin before Iguodala was out, and with the point-forward sidelined, it’s almost indiscernible.
“We weren’t really able to make many subs,” Kerr said.
Perhaps this is why the Warriors haven’t made any pushes early in games — instead, waiting until the third to go on their run. If they push early, they naturally get complacent, take their foot off the proverbial pedal, and more often than not, the opponent works their way back into the game. Then they have to make another push.
And those pushes — as spectacular as they are — are taxing.
The Warriors made two on Tuesday. They didn’t have enough to make a third. And that means we have at least two more games left in this series.
Iguodala can’t come back soon enough for the Warriors.