Warriors hold off Suns down the stretch; can Dub Nation trust Golden State this year?

A topsy-turvy season rolls on as Riley Gaucher breaks down last night's game.

If an average Warriors fan checked out on the team after their 4 and 1 start to the season, say to grab some pizza, and didn’t return to Chase Center until this week, their reaction would probably look a lot like this famous moment from the TV sitcom Community:

Narrow 119-114 victory over the Suns on Saturday night aside, everything in the Warriors’ orbit has truly felt like it spontaneously combusted while we weren’t looking.

Often times things in the Bay are never as bad as the most negative faction of the fanbase would have you believe, especially when considering the unparalleled success of the past decade of Warriors basketball, but lately its been pretty close to a worst-case scenario. The past week saw a three game losing streak and organization-wide vibes even worse than the team’s record. The burbling tension between the coach and the front office seemed to finally come to a head via an email from Joe Lacob to a fan, that head coach admitted that rotational decision were being made not in the image of meritocracy but by seniority, a once-prominent young player was outright benched, and it seems like the reality of mediocrity has finally started to settle in amongst Dub Nation.

This isn’t to say Dubs fans are happy about it. It appears that fans are so fed up with everyone on the team not named Steph Curry that they’re willing to trade franchise legend Draymond Green. Furthermore, even Steve Kerr’s most ardent supporters (the author included) have been forced to concede that he is doing a poor job of his supposed strengths this season; managing the lineups and massaging egos.

In the actual games, nobody could hit the broad side of a barn and even though the team’s leadership identified turnovers as the Achilles’ heel sabotaging otherwise competent performances, the Warriors were doomed over and over again to agonizingly close losses by an avalanche of inexcusable giveaways. For more on that particular situation, please read Daniel’s recap after the latest loss to Phoenix, it articulates the dire specifics so well. Suffice to say, the only thing keeping the Warriors from being the most depressing story in the Western Conference is the existence of the Los Angeles Clippers, which is a sobering thought.

All of this negativity and on-court ineptitude would be one thing if the team had the convenient excuse of poor play by their superstars, because then nothing else would really matter. Except Stephen Curry looks like an All-NBA level version of himself and while Jimmy Butler might leave fans wanting in terms of raw scoring totals, he’s as effective as ever and a worthy Robin to Steph’s Batman.

Much as they have all season, the Warriors’ two best player pulled their weight and more in Saturday’s rematch of Thursday’s defeat to Phoenix. It would be up to the rest of the roster to determine the outcome. And much like he has for a lot of the season, Jimmy and Steph’s third All-Star compatriot fell short in his responsibilities.

Draymond actually came out aggressive on offense, hitting two shots by driving to the basket, and managed to limit himself to only one turnover. But that low number was achieved not due to unusual passing restraint. In fact, Green’s usual lack of emotional restraint was on full display as he got himself kicked out of the game (on an admittedly soft) second technical with less than two minutes gone in the second quarter. Up until that point, he was also not doing his job at slowing down the opponents offense as the Suns stormed out to 44 points in the 1st quarter.

Steph did everything in Draymond’s absence, contributing in nearly every facet of the game. He’d end up with a team high 28 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists and a steals, and he forced turnovers by fronting Devin Booker with effort and aggression on defense. Steph didn’t have the cleanest offensive night, with multiple instances of a loose handle leading to 4 turnovers (perhaps a salute to his ejected PNR partner) and a bushel of missed threes including some egregious bricks that clanked off the backboard or missed the basket and glass completely. But he locked in down the stretch, making a pair of clutch baskets to keep the Suns from making good on a threat to steal the lead and using his gravity to get Quinten Post a rare dunk.

Jimmy Butler took 21 shots while maintaining strong efficiency and bailed the team out of numerous end of clock possessions. He might not have registered much in other statistical categories, but he was not lacking for presence and aggression in this contest.

Outside of Steph, the Warriors started slowly with the same old issues: letting opposing role players take wide open 3s, turning the ball over and an inability to finish inside. Concurrently, Devin Booker and Dub Nation enemy #1 Dillon Brooks were roasting the Warriors defense to the tune of 34 combined 1st half points. At this point, apologies are in order if these recaps are starting to sound like a broken-record, yet it does truly feel like we’ve watched the exact same game happen 29 times this year. The ultimate sign of how bad things have gotten for Golden State was the exasperation coming from the broadcast, as the usually optimistic and supportive to a fault Bob Fitzgerald was openly exasperated by the effort and concentration he was forced to describe.

The tide only turned in the Warriors favor once Phoenix’s threes stopped falling Butler’s started, and they received some stabilizing play from Will Richard. For the umpteenth time this year, Will Richard was the only Warrior impossible to criticize, which made his recent spate of DNP’s behind an ineffectual and often detrimental Buddy Hield all the more frustrating. Will hit all of his attempts from deep, rebounded with physicality and exquisite timing, and continues to be the kind of winning role-player the roster is lacking at the moment. The execution of this crash on the offensive glass was a perfect encapsulation of his intelligence and touch:

And his buzzer-beating put-back at the end of the 1st half was a huge, momentum changing play:

Other notable performances included Gui Santos’ 4th quarter cameo. Much like Will, Gui always seems ready to give the team what it needs when called upon, and his hustle, attention to detail on things like boxouts and ability to knock down open shots sparked the victory in the 4th. He might not have a wide enough skillset to be a permanent fixture in the rotation, but Gui deserves plaudits for his consistency and the victories he has impact this year.

De’Anthony Melton is still struggling with his shot, but he registered 5 assists, a steal and 2 blocks while not getting blown bye on every possession, which might make him the right choice to start at shooting guard once he is fully ramped up.

Ultimately this game was decided because the non-Steph and Jimmy elements of the roster did just enough to keep a feisty Suns team at bay, and it won’t extinguish any of the flames surrounding the team’s chemistry, roster makeup and ultimate ability to compete. Role players like Moses Moody and Brandon Podziemski were uninspiring and downright unplayable respectively, and Quinten Post continues to miss shots while at least displaying growth on defense. Things should improve as the team’s shooting percentage and three-point percentage start to normalize from their terrible recent trends, but even in that case fans will be forgiven for not trusting any good fortune to last longer than it takes to grab a slice of pizza.