Despite their recent two-game win streak, the Golden State Warriors have been out of kilter, having lost three of their previous four games before righting the ship against the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs.
The Warriors have found themselves trailing after the first quarter (doing so in their last three games) and even through the first half, often waiting for a half-time speech and a resurgent third-quarter run to put them back in the game.
Point guard Stephen Curry took his best guess as to why that has been the trend during the last few games.
Article Continues Below“I guess execution, especially at the defensive end,” said Curry, struggling to find a concise answer. “We know the game plan, we know we need to have intensity with that. I also would attribute a lot of that to we get everybody's best punch.”
“We always throw out last five game stats, but every player coming in to play us, they usually have a different switch to get to, and it looks like they've been saving it for us.”
Stephen Curry discusses the Warriors’ slow starts: pic.twitter.com/Fxu16YghDT
— Connor Letourneau (@Con_Chron) February 12, 2018
As a defending champion, it's often expected to be the one team to be under everyone's crosshairs and the one players wait to prove themselves or make a point throughout the season.
Head coach Steve Kerr attributed their poor execution and turnover-prone play to fatigue and players looking forward to rest during the All-Star break, but later noted this team would make no more excuses, but rather go into the break in a good note.
The Warriors will look to do so taking on the Phoenix Suns tonight without Draymond Green and going on the road on Wednesday against the Portland Trail Blazers.