Warriors need to clean up transition defense
In a team film session before their game in Dallas, Steve Kerr had a clear objective: hammer home transition defense.
Kerr showed nine straight minutes of film from the third quarter of Golden State's previous win over the Spurs, a team source said. In that stretch, the Warriors hustled back on defense, starting from the nail and fanning out from there. They communicated to avoid getting caught in mismatches and forced San Antonio to beat their set defense.
The Warriors won the quarter, 32-18. The film showed what the Warriors are capable of in transition.
But the squad's effort getting back on defense hasn't been consistent enough, even as the season enters its most important chapter and the Warriors are fighting for playoff positioning. Players and coaches have harped on the topic, but issues continue to crop up.
“I was much more concerned with the lack of urgency in transition the other night in Dallas,” Steve Kerr said after the Warriors' practice Friday at UCLA. “Just way too many pos- sessions when they got behind our defense. Dunked the ball, lobs, easy points. To be a good team, you have to take the easy stuff away. I thought our halfcourt defense was really good, but transition was very poor.”
Against Dallas, the Warriors lost the fast-break points battle 22-8. Even without Steph Curry and Draymond Green, the game turned out to be one the Warriors very well could have stolen. Mavericks star Luka Doncic injured his hamstring and didn't play the entire fourth quarter, and Dallas shot 22.2% from behind the 3-point arc.
But Golden State didn't provide enough resistance in transition, allowing easy buckets at the rim.
“I think it's just communication of who has the ball, and then building from the rim out,” rookie guard Brandin Podziemski said after the 109-99 loss. “A lot of the times, Kyrie (Irving) would take it down and just throw it in to (Dereck) Lively because there was a mismatch or whatnot.”