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A quick start to the 2024-25 season has rapidly became a massive roadblock for the Golden State Warriors. After losing 119-115 on the road in Tuesday night's NBA Cup game against the Denver Nuggets, the Warriors are now 12-8 on the season and have lost five straight games. Nothing appeared wrong when the Warriors were 12-3, but many of their problems are now coming to light with a 12-8 record. More specifically, Stephen Curry has been the only consistent part of this team's nightly rotations.
Curry can only do so much for the Warriors. As good as a scorer as he is, he alone hasn't been able to end the Dubs' recent woes. Head coach Steve Kerr and Curry have talked about figuring out Golden State's lineups, especially given that their 12-man rotation has been highly criticized during the team's losing streak.
Not many teams in the league have ever found success playing 12 players consistently every night, which is why Curry and Kerr tried something new out of desperation in Tuesday's loss.
“We've had some dry spells at the end of the first quarter, start of the second. And same in third and fourth. We wanted to just change it up,” Curry relayed in his postgame comments, via NBA Sports Bay Area. “When you lose, you gotta experiment. You gotta try different things. And I've done it in years past. Obviously, I gotta figure out my rhythm. I gotta make more shots and be able to put the ball in the basket more consistently. But I think the offense that we created, the energy we played with, it didn't — I adjusted really well to it, so who knows how long it'll last.
“We're trying to get out of this hole any way we can. We gotta play a little desperate, try desperate things at this point.”
The idea of having Curry spend more time with the second unit in the fourth quarter of Tuesday's game paid dividends. After trailing by five points entering the final quarter, Curry and the Warriors went on a 13-2 run and began to run away with the game. Nuggets star Nikola Jokic eased the tension for his team, but Golden State still led by seven points with only four minutes left. From that point on, a 13-foot jumper from Curry ended up being the only points Golden State would record the rest of the game, resulting in their four-point loss.
What has been a happy and positive locker room throughout the early portion of the 2024-25 season has certainly tensed up during this losing streak. Kerr voiced his displeasure with the team following the loss in Denver, and he even went as far as to single out second-year guard Brandin Podziemski in his postgame comments. Podziemski accepted the criticism that came his way, fully embracing this learning moment to be better.
It is still very early in the season, and the Warriors are working through different problems with their rotations. Kerr has made it clear he intends to cut his rotations down, which is why Curry has been the one to suggest experimenting with different players. Only 10 total players entered this NBA Cup game in Denver for the Warriors, as Draymond Green sat due to a calf injury and Lindy Waters III did not play.
This failed experiment with the rotation on Tuesday certainly had some flashes of brilliance, but all that matters to Steph and the Warriors is finding a way to get back in the win column.
“I'm not going to try and find positives. I think it's just a matter — We're all playing well. We're playing hard and we are all committed to get out of this hole,” Curry continued. “Everyone who has stepped out on the floor has been committed to that. We have a lot of great guys in the locker room and we have a lot of positive vibes, but nobody wants to sit and find positives in a losing streak. It's kind of just find a way to claw your way out and I think we showed it for 44 minutes.
“What happens on the floor and the commitment to how we're trying to do it… There's something to take from that but we gotta win.”
