The Golden State Warriors were out-classed by Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night, falling 132-122 for their third straight loss. Another defeat pushes the Dubs' record to 15-17, 11th in a crowded Western Conference and just one and-a-half games ahead of the rebuilding Utah Jazz.
There's no single reason for Golden State's ongoing lull. Draymond Green's absence loomed especially large on a night the Warriors surrendered a 130.7 offensive rating to Dallas, and Steve Kerr is still searching for the right lineup and player combinations over two months into the regular season. Klay Thompson is struggling once again, Jonathan Kuminga has been inconsistent since entering the starting five and it seems more likely than ever that Kevon Looney's days as a Golden State fixture may be over.
Still, the Warriors might not have reached these dire straits if Stephen Curry wasn't in the midst of an wholly uncharacteristic shooting slump. Curry addressed his recent play after another surprisingly inefficient performance against the Mavs, expressing optimism he'll soon get back on track.
“I've been in the situation before where you start off hot and cool down a little bit. Again, I hold myself to a high standard, know I need to shoot the ball better, play better, more consistent, provide that punch that scares teams and gets us going,” Curry said. “We've stayed somewhat competitive even with my numbers down, but I think confidence always remains high. It's hard to be perfect for all 82, but you still play the same way and know that over the course of the season the law of averages take over and I've proven I can do that, so that's why my confidence remains.”
Warriors' issues go beyond Stephen Curry struggles
Curry scored 25 points on 9-of-25 shooting Saturday, missing nine of his 15 tries from deep and five of his seven attempts from the paint. Though more aggressive and productive versus Dallas than in previous losses to the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat, Curry was no more efficient. He's averaging only 18.7 points during the Dubs' three-game losing streak, shooting 31.1% overall and 30.6% from beyond the arc.
Kerr tried to help Curry break out his slump on Saturday by changing the starting five, inserting Chris Paul for Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis for Looney. The presence of a future Hall-of-Fame table-setter to get Curry cleaner looks and energetic, high-flying big man to open up the floor didn't yield that intended result, though, nor accomplish Kerr's other goal of tightening up his team's leaky defense.
“We were looking for better defense from the start and wanted to get Steph (Curry) more involved as well and we felt like getting Chris (Paul) on the floor would maybe unlock Steph a little bit,” Kerr said postgame of the lineup change. “But the defense struggled all night, they scored 132 points and we just couldn’t stop them. Offensively we were fine, we scored 122, that should be enough, we took care of the ball, rebounded pretty well. But we just couldn’t get stops. It’s hard to win in this league especially in the modern NBA if you can’t get stops because everybody can score.”
It's hardly revelatory to suggest that Golden State will have troubling stacking wins without Curry and Thompson proving their bonafides as the greatest shooting tandem in league history on a nightly basis. Kuminga's progress in 2023-24 has been met by as many stops as starts, and Andrew Wiggins—while playing much better of late compared to a truly disastrous start—is nowhere near the peak he reached during the 2022 playoffs and before going down with injury early last season. At some point, Kerr must settle on a starting lineup and regular rotation.
None of those factors can be completely separated from Green's suspension, though, the two-way impact of his absence rippling across both sides of the ball and the entire roster from top to bottom. As a result, the Warriors are still very much trying to find themselves over a third of the way into the 82-game grind—a reality that makes consistency, continuity and the team-wide success that accompanies it impossible to come by almost no matter how Curry is playing.
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