Team has ‘lack of will to defend’
Forward Green calls it out after loss to Clippers
Draymond Green isn’t one for excuses, especially at this point in the season.
That’s why he was quick to squash the suggestion that the Warriors’ underperformance at this stage of the season was the result of a proverbial championship hangover. Instead, he identified the team’s lack of effort on defense as being a major culprit in the team’s shortcomings.
“You’re not hungover at .500, 60 games into the season,” Green said Tuesday after the Warriors’ 134-124 loss to the Clippers dropped them to 29-29 this season. “You’re a loser
if you’re still hungover at that point. So there’s no hangover. It’s the will to defend, to stop and guard your man, and sink and help and trap the box and rotate. Defense is always one or two steps extra. I’m gonna take that extra step to get there or not. And that’s all will. And we don’t have that as a team.”
The Warriors lost three of their last four games heading into the AllStar break. Their latest defeat was an appropriate way to end the first chunk of this rollercoaster season in the team’s eyes and gave the Warriors plenty to think about over the next eight days.
“We’ve been up and down and right in the middle of the pack on offense, right in the middle of the pack on defense,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We feel like we could be better.”
The Warriors aren’t worried about their offense. Between Stephen Curry, Jordan Poole, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins, Golden State has plenty of firepower to outscore opponents. In fact, the team has averaged the second-most points per game in the league this season.