We needed the other players to step up last night. I wonder if when Steph goes supernova, everybody else just kinda relaxes and thinks that Steph will save and win them the game. Steph provided the offense but the defense just broke down. And I can’t understand why Kerr was all praises for how the guys played. I admire Kerr’s cool and intelligent demeanor but sometimes I wish he would get clipboard like mad and light a fire under this team. Steph was really somber in his postgame interview and actually said it was a frustrating game. It was a privilege and entertaining to have watched another awesome game from Steph but, in the end, it was a sad footnote in the loss. And we really need a big. Kerr’s small ball style needs some changes inorder for this team to keep up with the other teams.
I think it's an indication of Kerr approaching the end of the season more than anything else. There's no time to work through things anymore. He's done the talking... he's done the film coaching... he's done the rotation tweaking... there's only so many games left. Either the players are going to get their offense and defense right, or they aren't.
As for last night, I thought the team generally played ok (See Abaddon's comment). It just wasn't our night, and it wasn't a bad loss. Just get over the line to the playoffs and we'll be ok. And if not, go into the offseason with some lotto balls and rue how screwed up this season got.
Mar 16, 2023·edited Mar 16, 2023Liked by Eric Apricot
For all we know he's getting clipboard-mad and lighting fires behind closed doors. Coaches always have to find a balance between encouragement and constructive criticism, but I don't think there's any scenario where calling out the players publicly in a post game presser for the benefit of angry fans is a good thing.
As far as "they too small, Ernuh!!" ... maybe. But we hear that refrain every season, including the last one, which worked out okay. The biggest issue right now imo is the absence of Wiggs, who's our de facto third rotational big (6'-8", wiry strong, and uber-athletic, with six inches of standing reach on Harry Barnes and four times the rate of blocked shots, plus mad rebounding skills when he puts his mind to it). I'm with belilaugh in feeling that if we don't get him back, we're not going anywhere in any case.
If we do get him back... the OG starting 5 remains the best starting unit in the NBA by a mile (+23.4 points per 100 possessions). And I dunno, Donte, JP, Jonathan, JMyke, and Tony doesn't seem like bad benchmob? There are plenty of journeymen bigs kicking around the scrapheap (Noel, Boogie, D12, e.g.) but I doubt any of them supplant any of the top 10 rotation guys; and at that point we're mostly talking about messing with team chemistry for the sake of making a move.
And ... bleak as it always seems after regular season losses, it's useful to keep in mind that the current core has won their last **18 straight western conference playoff series.** Maybe let's see them actually lose a series before making big personnel or style changes in the name of "keeping up with" all the teams they've been destroying when it matters?
> Steph provided the offense but the defense just broke down
I think this is a little simplistic. That Clippers team can play at a very high level, although they are inconsistent (sound familiar?). They played at a very high level last night. They're also a really tough matchup for the Warriors naturally, and especially without Wiggins. (GP2 would be nice to have as well).
There are almost no teams in the West with an above 0.500 road record. There are road losses the Warriors should be absolutely ashamed about, but I don't really think this was one of them. When you have so few and such high aspirations, though, they are more impactful.
I'm just hoping they can win in Atlanta without Draymond, assuming his 16th tech does not get rescinded. That is going to be a much more painful result than just the loss...
The white guys who sound black club is one member shorter. Thank god we still have guys like Bill Medley, Michael McDonald, GEasy, Post Malone, Chris Mullin and Donte Divencenzo to carry the torch.
Mind boggling to see normal-ish road regression everywhere and then that three point shooting percentage difference (and points, but most of that is from threes). Would be interesting to also see free throw attempt rankings home vs road.
An obvious comment that I have yet to see anyone make: They needed Anthony Lamb last night. All the little things he brings plus fresh legs. Would certainly have made a difference. Enough for a win? Who knows, but a positive difference.
They seem to be choosing to fill that role with Kuminga and Moody instead. Personally, I don't really believe Lamb would have moved the needle enough for us to win last night, although it's certainly not impossible.
I generally agree from what I've seen this season... but Moody has been much better recently, and do you really think the Moody → Lamb upgrade would have made the difference last night?
So much conjecture about why other teams and even their role players are shooting so well against us. What I’ve seen are guys getting into a rhythm which the home floor accentuates and sustains. Our combination of spotty defensive focus and strings of TOs imho invites our opponents who are already pumped up by the crowd (which, by the way is heavily sprinkled with blue and gold jerseys) to have big games against us.
I know that folks here marvel at the kind of Curry performance he turned in last night but I just couldn’t take watching the beating they were putting on themselves with all the TOs in the 2nd Q and turned the sad spectacle off. Curry 50 points in a loss is tragic. I also don’t want to see a Curry 60 or 70 L either. I’ll bet Steph would say he would have rather scored 10 pts with 10 assists and 10 rebounds in a win than set a scoring record in a loss. Nuff said.
While it looks like GP2 comes back, I'm not sure how much impact he can have in guarding the big elite wings in the west like Kawhi, PG13, KD. Donte competes but he's also undersized and is best at pestering small guards like Lillard. If GP2 and Wiggns come back I do think the defense can eventually become good enough in the playoffs to win, but I'm not holding my breath on Wiggins until further notice.
It's crazy to me how certain guys in the league will always get the benefit of the doubt on calls. What are they doing so different? Are they flopping in a certain way that forces a call? I just need some consistency in this league. Either call it for everybody or let them play... preferably let them play. We're not trying to see a free throw fest every night because guys are just jumping into defenders.
I think it's the size difference. Look at the small guys in the league who gets a whistle, dame and Trae, they are two of the worst floppers in the league, they have to do much more then someone big like lebron or kawhis to get whistles
A look at that amazing, circus like shot that ended with curry on the ground, the ball in the net and no foul call on the hits he took. https://youtu.be/yuTcd00DRwk
And this was at the end of a quarter where LA shot 11 FTs mostly on way less contact. I was SCREAMING at my TV and couldn't believe curry or kerr didn't smack the ref with a clipboard and get a T at that point.
I mean one could deduce if one is a deducer, that the StephCurry show is no longer enough to guarantee anything. If you don't get enough production out of the rest of your cast, the ratings go down. Which brings me to Draymond and his asinine insistence on getting T'd up. What's up with that when we needed to win that game for many reasons. Doesn't he realize it hurts the team more than it helps the team? He seems to suffer from a dislocated brain. Regime change just might be coming sooner than many think. How could a team like this not be able to win on the road any longer yet have a sterling record at home? This is some weird shit and I haven't heard any explanation from anyone that seems to ring true.
Green was just chirping and yapping at the refs all night long. I just wished he shut his mouth up and play. He was sloppy last night. It looked like he committed more than the four turnovers that he had.
Dray was a bit reckless after the first T, but the first T was based on him flipping the ball to the ref and accidentally (I believe) not realizing a Clipper was running between them. Honestly, for all of the "Dray gets away with stuff other players don't" (which is true), that was a great counter-example of "Dray got a T that other players would not have". Just like one of our players hitting Kawhi on the hand after he shoots generates an and-one while Steph getting absolutely whacked on the arm by Kawhi is "no harm no foul".
After the last road trip my expectations were insanely low so last night didn't hurt too much. We didn't get blown out from the jump and we looked somewhat competent at times so that's good progress. IMO last night was a product of personnel mismatch and the good ole fashion "they outworked you" performance on the boards. Some of it was due to us being small but they also beat us to the spot more often than not. Let's learn to finish games on the road now.. yeah?
Also, Steph is pretty much having the 2016 unanimous MVP season all over again. Don't let this go to waste.
No doubt that Steph is our MVP. League wise, maybe not. Not being able to win on the road is a mystery. They know how to win at home, so what's the difference between another court? Every team has to do it and the better teams win enough on the road that it is not the same issue as with the Warriors. Same players, different court, bad results.
He's automatically excluded due to missing too many games, which is fair. If he hadn't missed those games, and we were in the 2-3 slot now (not that many games difference), it would be a different story.
To be clear, I don't think he'd win, but I could see a 3rd place finish like in 2020-21 easily.
MVPs are nice, but Steph knows that his place in NBA history isgoing to depend on how many rings he ends up with especially in relation to the main rival of his era - LBJ
Oh please that's so glib. The main reason some people still put MJ (and even Kobe) over LBJ are rings and finals record. If steph were able to get 2 or even 1 more ring, his all time legacy will bring him into even more rarefied air.
If he got another MVP, the result would be similar. People care a lot about MVPs (with good reason). Rings only count along with other factors (MVPs, All NBA, etc). Steph has those, so yes, it would help his legacy a lot, of course.
As several commenters have pointed out, the distorted foul calls in the third quarter sunk the Warriors. OTOH, give credit to the Clippers and Westbrook. Their offensive rebounding and second chance points made a read difference. How many times did we see Westbrook get a rebound when surrounded by 3 or 4 Warriors? Too many, that's for sure.
Also, Steph was incredible, but I thought the team went away from Klay too soon. While he got 16 shots (shooting 37.5% on both 2 and 3 pointers), I think this is the low end of what his shot total should be.
Unnecessary turnovers (12 in the first half) also helped spell the Warriors' doom. On the plus side (Steph), there were no 20 point early deficits - the team looked like it came to play and win.
Offense wasn't the problem, largely thanks to Steph. It was on the other end of the floor, the fouls and failure to defensive rebound most specifically. We shot 55% for god's sake.
It's annoying to constantly see guys grab Steph's wrist or whatever body parts to try to prevent him from getting separation off ball. If I can see it from my couch that's got to be a call on the court. In the NBA your window for anything is less than a second and those little things can REALLY change the game.
Westbrook figured out what to do when the D doesn’t guard you. Crash the boards. There’s also no one to box you out. Kuminga should do that when teams don’t guard him too.
and to think that an NBA level player and coach cant think of this makes me really wonder how fixated the coach is in getting the young players to only do specific things! Hurst seeing how poorly Coach Kerr has used JK and also Moody - who seems to be getting better and better at defending
JK crashes the glass sometimes, but the transition defense is terrible, so they err on the side of getting back. Moody struggled a lot this season, but seems to have figured something out recently. Good to see.
This game once again portrayed the inconsistent and lousy refereeing - Terence Mann would be breathed on by a dubs and got all the calls - other end,Steph gets hacked and pushed - no call. That stretch in the third quarter of huge free throw disparity turned the game. I think these types of inconsistent officiating must mess with a defenders ability to play and given that it is already tilted against them, makes it harder, especially for the Dubs on the road!
Steph is listed as questionable for the Hawks with left thumb soreness.
We needed the other players to step up last night. I wonder if when Steph goes supernova, everybody else just kinda relaxes and thinks that Steph will save and win them the game. Steph provided the offense but the defense just broke down. And I can’t understand why Kerr was all praises for how the guys played. I admire Kerr’s cool and intelligent demeanor but sometimes I wish he would get clipboard like mad and light a fire under this team. Steph was really somber in his postgame interview and actually said it was a frustrating game. It was a privilege and entertaining to have watched another awesome game from Steph but, in the end, it was a sad footnote in the loss. And we really need a big. Kerr’s small ball style needs some changes inorder for this team to keep up with the other teams.
I think it's an indication of Kerr approaching the end of the season more than anything else. There's no time to work through things anymore. He's done the talking... he's done the film coaching... he's done the rotation tweaking... there's only so many games left. Either the players are going to get their offense and defense right, or they aren't.
As for last night, I thought the team generally played ok (See Abaddon's comment). It just wasn't our night, and it wasn't a bad loss. Just get over the line to the playoffs and we'll be ok. And if not, go into the offseason with some lotto balls and rue how screwed up this season got.
For all we know he's getting clipboard-mad and lighting fires behind closed doors. Coaches always have to find a balance between encouragement and constructive criticism, but I don't think there's any scenario where calling out the players publicly in a post game presser for the benefit of angry fans is a good thing.
As far as "they too small, Ernuh!!" ... maybe. But we hear that refrain every season, including the last one, which worked out okay. The biggest issue right now imo is the absence of Wiggs, who's our de facto third rotational big (6'-8", wiry strong, and uber-athletic, with six inches of standing reach on Harry Barnes and four times the rate of blocked shots, plus mad rebounding skills when he puts his mind to it). I'm with belilaugh in feeling that if we don't get him back, we're not going anywhere in any case.
If we do get him back... the OG starting 5 remains the best starting unit in the NBA by a mile (+23.4 points per 100 possessions). And I dunno, Donte, JP, Jonathan, JMyke, and Tony doesn't seem like bad benchmob? There are plenty of journeymen bigs kicking around the scrapheap (Noel, Boogie, D12, e.g.) but I doubt any of them supplant any of the top 10 rotation guys; and at that point we're mostly talking about messing with team chemistry for the sake of making a move.
And ... bleak as it always seems after regular season losses, it's useful to keep in mind that the current core has won their last **18 straight western conference playoff series.** Maybe let's see them actually lose a series before making big personnel or style changes in the name of "keeping up with" all the teams they've been destroying when it matters?
Don’t forget GP2 in that bench mob!
> Steph provided the offense but the defense just broke down
I think this is a little simplistic. That Clippers team can play at a very high level, although they are inconsistent (sound familiar?). They played at a very high level last night. They're also a really tough matchup for the Warriors naturally, and especially without Wiggins. (GP2 would be nice to have as well).
There are almost no teams in the West with an above 0.500 road record. There are road losses the Warriors should be absolutely ashamed about, but I don't really think this was one of them. When you have so few and such high aspirations, though, they are more impactful.
I'm just hoping they can win in Atlanta without Draymond, assuming his 16th tech does not get rescinded. That is going to be a much more painful result than just the loss...
Will An NBA Player Ever Make TWENTY 3's In A Game?? | BBallBreakdown: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EErzgKqMGg
RIP: Bobby Caldwell
The white guys who sound black club is one member shorter. Thank god we still have guys like Bill Medley, Michael McDonald, GEasy, Post Malone, Chris Mullin and Donte Divencenzo to carry the torch.
Rick Astley
Really?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
I’m very familiar with him and the song, just never thought of it as a song where the singer’s race fooled people
I agree. I just wanted the meta Rick roll where I try to get you to click on the link in a thread that's actually about him :D
Home vs. road stats:
Home:
10 in offensive efficiency!!
13 in off. rebound % (24.7%)
15 in def. rebound % (76.7%)
13 in total rebound % (50.9%)
14 in opponent points per game (111.7)
3 in defensive efficiency!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3 in opponent shooting % !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (44.9%)
1 in opponent three point % !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (32.4%)
9 in opponent two point % !!!! (53.0%)
Road:
15 in offensive efficiency
24 in off. rebound % (21.7%)
19 in def. rebound % (75.6%)
29 in total rebound % (47.3%)
29 in opponent points per game (124.1)
28 in defensive efficiency
26 in opponent shooting % (49.4%)
29 in opponent three point % (40.8%)
14 in opponent two point % (55.0%)
Mind boggling to see normal-ish road regression everywhere and then that three point shooting percentage difference (and points, but most of that is from threes). Would be interesting to also see free throw attempt rankings home vs road.
Home:
30 in FTAs per game (19.7)
19 in opponent FTAs per game (24.4)
Road:
29 in FTAs per game (20.1)
30 in opponent FTAs per game (26.6)
+2.2 attempts per game home/road doesn't seem outlandish to me...
An obvious comment that I have yet to see anyone make: They needed Anthony Lamb last night. All the little things he brings plus fresh legs. Would certainly have made a difference. Enough for a win? Who knows, but a positive difference.
They seem to be choosing to fill that role with Kuminga and Moody instead. Personally, I don't really believe Lamb would have moved the needle enough for us to win last night, although it's certainly not impossible.
Lamb is better than Moody.
I generally agree from what I've seen this season... but Moody has been much better recently, and do you really think the Moody → Lamb upgrade would have made the difference last night?
So much conjecture about why other teams and even their role players are shooting so well against us. What I’ve seen are guys getting into a rhythm which the home floor accentuates and sustains. Our combination of spotty defensive focus and strings of TOs imho invites our opponents who are already pumped up by the crowd (which, by the way is heavily sprinkled with blue and gold jerseys) to have big games against us.
I know that folks here marvel at the kind of Curry performance he turned in last night but I just couldn’t take watching the beating they were putting on themselves with all the TOs in the 2nd Q and turned the sad spectacle off. Curry 50 points in a loss is tragic. I also don’t want to see a Curry 60 or 70 L either. I’ll bet Steph would say he would have rather scored 10 pts with 10 assists and 10 rebounds in a win than set a scoring record in a loss. Nuff said.
While it looks like GP2 comes back, I'm not sure how much impact he can have in guarding the big elite wings in the west like Kawhi, PG13, KD. Donte competes but he's also undersized and is best at pestering small guards like Lillard. If GP2 and Wiggns come back I do think the defense can eventually become good enough in the playoffs to win, but I'm not holding my breath on Wiggins until further notice.
Don't ever doubt gp2 defense
I don't, but he's best at guarding smaller quick guards, not brickhouses like Kawhi or a 7 footer like KD. That's what Wiggins is for.
It's crazy to me how certain guys in the league will always get the benefit of the doubt on calls. What are they doing so different? Are they flopping in a certain way that forces a call? I just need some consistency in this league. Either call it for everybody or let them play... preferably let them play. We're not trying to see a free throw fest every night because guys are just jumping into defenders.
I will never, ever understand it
I think it's the size difference. Look at the small guys in the league who gets a whistle, dame and Trae, they are two of the worst floppers in the league, they have to do much more then someone big like lebron or kawhis to get whistles
A look at that amazing, circus like shot that ended with curry on the ground, the ball in the net and no foul call on the hits he took. https://youtu.be/yuTcd00DRwk
And this was at the end of a quarter where LA shot 11 FTs mostly on way less contact. I was SCREAMING at my TV and couldn't believe curry or kerr didn't smack the ref with a clipboard and get a T at that point.
Yea I would like kerr to get a T for some of these blown games by the refs it's ridiculous
I almost broke my TV I couldn't believe he wasn't in the refs face
What are you talking about? He was only fouled two, maybe three times (without a call). Don't make excuses /s ;)
Ooooohhhhh! Curry has one of those repeat customer cards for the ref? He’s gotta get fouled 10 times to get one called?
I mean one could deduce if one is a deducer, that the StephCurry show is no longer enough to guarantee anything. If you don't get enough production out of the rest of your cast, the ratings go down. Which brings me to Draymond and his asinine insistence on getting T'd up. What's up with that when we needed to win that game for many reasons. Doesn't he realize it hurts the team more than it helps the team? He seems to suffer from a dislocated brain. Regime change just might be coming sooner than many think. How could a team like this not be able to win on the road any longer yet have a sterling record at home? This is some weird shit and I haven't heard any explanation from anyone that seems to ring true.
Green was just chirping and yapping at the refs all night long. I just wished he shut his mouth up and play. He was sloppy last night. It looked like he committed more than the four turnovers that he had.
Dray was a bit reckless after the first T, but the first T was based on him flipping the ball to the ref and accidentally (I believe) not realizing a Clipper was running between them. Honestly, for all of the "Dray gets away with stuff other players don't" (which is true), that was a great counter-example of "Dray got a T that other players would not have". Just like one of our players hitting Kawhi on the hand after he shoots generates an and-one while Steph getting absolutely whacked on the arm by Kawhi is "no harm no foul".
Dray got away with a ton of non-T’s before yesterday, and he earned the 25 before that.
After the last road trip my expectations were insanely low so last night didn't hurt too much. We didn't get blown out from the jump and we looked somewhat competent at times so that's good progress. IMO last night was a product of personnel mismatch and the good ole fashion "they outworked you" performance on the boards. Some of it was due to us being small but they also beat us to the spot more often than not. Let's learn to finish games on the road now.. yeah?
Also, Steph is pretty much having the 2016 unanimous MVP season all over again. Don't let this go to waste.
No doubt that Steph is our MVP. League wise, maybe not. Not being able to win on the road is a mystery. They know how to win at home, so what's the difference between another court? Every team has to do it and the better teams win enough on the road that it is not the same issue as with the Warriors. Same players, different court, bad results.
> League wise, maybe not.
He's automatically excluded due to missing too many games, which is fair. If he hadn't missed those games, and we were in the 2-3 slot now (not that many games difference), it would be a different story.
To be clear, I don't think he'd win, but I could see a 3rd place finish like in 2020-21 easily.
MVPs are nice, but Steph knows that his place in NBA history isgoing to depend on how many rings he ends up with especially in relation to the main rival of his era - LBJ
Right, just like Robert Horry, who's clearly a top 10 player with his seven championships.
Oh please that's so glib. The main reason some people still put MJ (and even Kobe) over LBJ are rings and finals record. If steph were able to get 2 or even 1 more ring, his all time legacy will bring him into even more rarefied air.
If he got another MVP, the result would be similar. People care a lot about MVPs (with good reason). Rings only count along with other factors (MVPs, All NBA, etc). Steph has those, so yes, it would help his legacy a lot, of course.
They went 4-2 on the road in Jan. They are 3-24 on the road otherwise.
As several commenters have pointed out, the distorted foul calls in the third quarter sunk the Warriors. OTOH, give credit to the Clippers and Westbrook. Their offensive rebounding and second chance points made a read difference. How many times did we see Westbrook get a rebound when surrounded by 3 or 4 Warriors? Too many, that's for sure.
Also, Steph was incredible, but I thought the team went away from Klay too soon. While he got 16 shots (shooting 37.5% on both 2 and 3 pointers), I think this is the low end of what his shot total should be.
Unnecessary turnovers (12 in the first half) also helped spell the Warriors' doom. On the plus side (Steph), there were no 20 point early deficits - the team looked like it came to play and win.
Offense wasn't the problem, largely thanks to Steph. It was on the other end of the floor, the fouls and failure to defensive rebound most specifically. We shot 55% for god's sake.
The defense dwindled though in the second half. I do think that the foul discrepancy played a part in that. Sucks.
There’s a theory I’ve seen before that Steph doesn’t get as many calls because Under Armour. Even the refs wear the swoosh, right?
It's annoying to constantly see guys grab Steph's wrist or whatever body parts to try to prevent him from getting separation off ball. If I can see it from my couch that's got to be a call on the court. In the NBA your window for anything is less than a second and those little things can REALLY change the game.
Westbrook figured out what to do when the D doesn’t guard you. Crash the boards. There’s also no one to box you out. Kuminga should do that when teams don’t guard him too.
and to think that an NBA level player and coach cant think of this makes me really wonder how fixated the coach is in getting the young players to only do specific things! Hurst seeing how poorly Coach Kerr has used JK and also Moody - who seems to be getting better and better at defending
JK crashes the glass sometimes, but the transition defense is terrible, so they err on the side of getting back. Moody struggled a lot this season, but seems to have figured something out recently. Good to see.
It’s a pretty brilliant counter, tbh
This game once again portrayed the inconsistent and lousy refereeing - Terence Mann would be breathed on by a dubs and got all the calls - other end,Steph gets hacked and pushed - no call. That stretch in the third quarter of huge free throw disparity turned the game. I think these types of inconsistent officiating must mess with a defenders ability to play and given that it is already tilted against them, makes it harder, especially for the Dubs on the road!
There was a bullshit offensive foul called on kuminga saying he pushed off, the same thing kawhis and pg do ALL FUCKING GAME
And Steph was attacking the rim and being held on changes of direction in the third but still no calls.