Warriors drop third in a row as Magic stun them in Florida

THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO WIN RIGHT NOW FOLKS!

Daniel Hardee

Mar 23, 2022

127

The Golden State Warriors lost 94-90 to a bad Orlando Magic team last night.

Warriors on NBCS @NBCSWarriors

Klay was whistled for a foul on a 3-point attempt with 12.2 seconds left

Lololol the Dubs have lost the first two games of Stephen Curry’s absence in excruciating manner. There was the free throw line debacle at the end of the Spurs battle, and now we have Klay Thompson getting whistled for the back breaking foul on the three-point shooter to seal this contest against lottery bound Orlando.

There were some spicy comments after the game for those who care such things.

C.J. Holmes 🦹🏾‍♂️ @CjHolmes22

Draymond Green: "I think we're playing soft. We're playing stupid. We're just not playing good basketball and we're getting punked."

Jim Park🏀🌌 @Sheridanblog

Kerr is childish. He refuses to look himself in the mirror. Chooses to blame his players and throw them under the bus while painting himself as supportive by adding "I love these guys" followed by a silent "but". You call this leadership under adversity? You call this "coaching"?

Anthony Slater @anthonyVslater

Steve Kerr’s grimmest postgame press conference maybe of the season: “I love these guys in the locker room. Awesome guys. I know they want to win. We just have to learn how to win. Right now, we don’t know how.” https://t.co/1yOqeLYVmV

YESSSS LET THE ANGER FLOW THROUGH YOU. But it’s funny that the Warriors have a record that would be good enough to lead the entire Eastern Conference and yet we’ve got Kerr, Green, and the fanbase in “NOT GOOD ENOUGH” mode. That’s what makes Golden State Golden State; we all share the highest standards in the land.

Speaking of standards, my phone got bombarded with buddies demanding I atone for the sins of Andrew Wiggins last night after his 13-point performance on an atrocious 5-of-19 shooting from the field. (NOBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT HIS 8 REBOUNDS THOUGH).

Yes, Wiggins’ rough shooting night made it hard on the Dubs to pull out this road win. There was a period where Wiggins missed six straight shots from the 3:16 mark of the first quarter to the 7:44 mark of the third period.

My notifications were blowing up with Wiggins’ skeptics wondering how I could ever put my allegiance behind such a bricklayer. Going back over those FGA, I’m not really mad at the shots themselves, as he had worked himself free on several of them and just couldn’t convert.

Missed layup in transition that seemed like a gimme.
Missed rhythm jumper beyond the arc that hit the backboard.
Missed post hook shot after a nice move to get open.
Missed end of shot clock heave.
Missed open push shot despite using his dribble to get open.
Missed wide open triple in transition that rattles in and out.

But then again, the fanbase turned on Harrison Barnes not because he was taking bad shots, but because he was missing the open ones. If there was one possession during this game that I’d single out as non-aggressive, I’d go to early in the first quarter.

Here All-Star Wiggs has the height advantage of guard Cole Anthony on the wing in a backdown situation. No double team comes, and yet Wiggs seems to lose ground and get pushed out towards the dotted circle for a long push shot.

This is the kind of shot that reminds me of my days at UC Berkeley’s rec center when I as a 6-foot-4 post player would settle over a shorter defender and my teammates would groan. Wiggins knows he likes the matchup, but doesn’t seem to maximize his size and athleticism advantage in this moment.

Now here’s some Wiggs that I DO like. Catch the ball at the top of the arc, take this cat off the dribble and hit him with a fluid spin that gets him enough momentum for his athleticism to take over around the basket.

DOMINATE THEM WIGGS.

The next possession I’ll cue up is similar to the first we saw here, with Wiggins backing down the smaller Anthony for a turnaround push shot. This time Wiggins aggressively follows his short miss and finishes the play off.

95.7 The Game @957thegame

Steve Kerr on Andrew Wiggins struggles: “He’s just got to be aggressive… I have faith in Wiggs and I think he’s going to get this thing turned around.”

I’m still proudly on Wiggins Island. I have no concrete judgment on this team until the playoffs start and they get their dudes back including the sage Andre Iguodala. I predicted a 4-6 seed so them being third right now is like found money. BUT IF THEY DON’T BEAT THE BEST TEAM IN THE EAST TONIGHT ON THE SECOND NIGHT OF A BACK-TO-BACK IT’S TIME TO TRADE FOR BRADLEY BEAL.

P.S. Otto Porter Jr. had another crazy double-double off the bench, scoring 14 points and grabbing 15 rebounds hmmm. Jonathan Kuminga put up 14 points and 5 boards in 20 minutes off the bench as well. I’m very excited for them two contributing in a playoff series hmmmmmmmm.