The Golden State Warriors spent most of preseason bragging about their wealth of quality depth. Steve Kerr and Stephen Curry invoked the “Strength In Numbers” 2015-16 champions as a comparison for these Dubs after their season-opening win over the Los Angeles Lakers, when Golden State celebrated ring night by going 11-deep in a blowout victory.
The Warriors are singing a much different tune two games later. They staved off an arduous comeback effort from the Sacramento Kings on Sunday night at Chase Center, only holding on for a 130-125 victory after Kerr was forced to bring his starters back on the floor for crunch-time.
Golden State led by 26 at one point in the third quarter, and Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney entered the fourth on the bench, fully confident their nights were over. A garbage-time victory seemed so cemented even once Sacramento put a dent in its deficit that Kerr briefly played rookie second-rounder Ryan Rollins, the Warriors' only active player outside the active rotation.
But Golden State never shook the widespread struggles that plagued bench units in Friday's loss to the Denver Nuggets. Curry and the starters were so unprepared for their sudden return that the Warriors scored just one point in the game's last five minutes, clanking good looks from all over the floor, before the Kings were forced to play the foul game with 25 seconds left.
Kerr barely minced words about the state of his second unit on the postgame podium.
“The main thing was just our lack of energy. You've got a group of reserves out there, those guys should be dying to be on the floor, and flying around and playing with huge energy. That was what I was upset about…” he said. “There was no juice, no life to that group.”
Golden State's reserves, to be fair, were just minus-seven on the fourth-quarter scoreboard when a frustrated Kerr took his starters off ice with 5:18 remaining. The Warriors altered their rotation on Sunday to make Moses Moody the backup at small forward and Jonathan Kuminga the odd man out, and Donte DiVincenzo didn't play in the final stanza after leaving with a hamstring injury. Load ramp-ups for Klay Thompson and Draymond Green factor into that lack of continuity and rhythm, too.
After each of the Warriors' reserves spent another game in the plus-minus red and looked a bit listless doing it, though, Kerr wasn't interested in caving to those excuses.
“We're gonna have to find what we're looking for in terms of energy and leadership. It's not entirely fair to them to put all those guys together,” he said. “But this is a tough league. It's sink or swim, and you gotta figure it out.”
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