Pistons expose Warriors soft defense; Dubs dip under .500

Is it time to bring back the architect of Golden State's defensive identity?

The Golden State Warriors officially having a losing record now, dropping under .500 with a 128-114 loss to the Detroit Pistons. This came despite Stephen Curry going for 32 points and Jordan Poole adding 30 points of his own off the bench.

Those Splash Bro & Splash Son pyrotechnics paled in comparison to the scoring output from the Pistons, who had four starters score at least 20 points last night:

• Saddiq Bey - 28 points

• Isaiah Stewart - 24 points

• Cade Cunningham - 23 points

• Bojan Bogdanovic - 21 points

So either those four dudes are the Four Horsemen and are going to destroy the league, or Golden State’s defense is in shambles. The Warriors are ranked 23rd in defensive rating right now, a true throwback to the old-school Golden State days where each night was a shootout that often times didn’t go Dub Nation’s way.

Monte Poole @MontePooleNBCS

Last time the Warriors opened a season with three consecutive road losses: lockout-shortened 2011-12. They finished 23-43 and landed in the lottery.

Remember when the Dubs traded offensive dynamo Monta Ellis for defensive anchor Andrew Bogut and Coach Mark Jackson was preaching defense like there was no tomorrow? Those were integral keys to creating the defensive identity that current Coach Steve Kerr said was the foundation for Golden State’s dynastic success.

Marc J. Spears @MarcJSpears

Warriors coach Steve Kerr credits former Warriors coach @MarkJackson13 for making the franchise a "great defensive team" before his arrival.

Where is Pastor Mark when we need him?? These Warriors are putting up little defensive resistance, and hold a 3-4 record through seven games because of it.

Kendra Andrews @kendra__andrews

Steve Kerr says that tonight's loss stems from the same string of issues: lack of ball movement, defense (especially in transition) and fouling. "Right now, it looks like a pickup game out there."

Some say the lack of D is because they are playing unproven youth and hamstringing the team; others say it’s because the starters have a championship hangover.

Draymond Green, one of the greatest defenders in NBA history, had this to say after the loss last night:

TheWarriorsTalk @TheWarriorsTalk

Draymond Green doesn’t solely blame the youth of the team for the early season woes the team has faced. “Quite frankly none of us are playing that great on both sides of the ball.”

Here’s some examples of the suspect defense GSW has been playing recently. In this first clip, Hamidou Diallo draws three defenders with Golden State defenders forcing him to swing the pass back out to the perimeter. In a perfect world all the Warriors would switch, rotate, and recover crisply to shut down the Pistons windows for good shots…

In this case the Dubs completely abandon Diallo under the rim for an easy jam.

This next clip is the kind of thing that makes high school coaches run their players on suicide drills.

Kelly O'Meara Morales @_itskellyo

Trying to make sense of how this happened here. Hard to tell without audio, but it seems like Draymond Green wanted to stay on Jaden Ivey until he realized that James Wiseman wasn't going to float out towards the wing

So we ain’t guarding nobody huh?!

In this next clip, we see the crafty Cade Cunningham creep carefully through multiple defenders at the arc before exploding with vigor through James Wiseman. Wiseman seemed like he was doing his damndest to not foul here by keeping his arms straight up; but Cunningham has enough finishing skills to scoop the shot in around Wiseman like he’s a scarecrow.

The perimeter defense was clearly not a deterrent, and Wiseman didn’t intimidate Cunningham on this finish.

Monte Poole @MontePooleNBCS

Pistons were openly disrespecting Wiseman's defense and now he's becoming more assertive. Somebody got in his ear during last timeout.

If you have the stomach, go check out the condensed footage of the game and see for yourself just how weak the defense is right now. Thankfully, the season is young and there will be many opportunities for the Dubs to get their chemistry up.