Steve Kerr certainly doesn't believe the Golden State Warriors defended well enough to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night. After calling out his shorthanded team's lack of “fight” and “grit” on that side of the ball following its fifth straight loss, though, the Dubs' head coach shed additional light on his pointed post-game comments Friday afternoon.
It's not that Golden State lacked effort or urgency against the Thunder. As Kerr saw it, the Warriors simply let the unfortunate two-way tenor of Thursday's game affect their confidence, a dynamic that bled most into the defensive side of the ball.
“It's not effort,” Kerr said after Friday's practice of Golden State's defensive issues. “It's interesting, you can lose confidence defensively like you can lose confidence in your shot. I thought we got a little demoralized last night. They made everything. Even when our coverage was good, they were making everything. I think I told you before the game I'd be surprised if either team shot as well as last time. I was obviously dead wrong about that. They lit it up. I thought we just got a little demoralized, even on a couple plays where we defended well and they made a shot. That's part of human nature, the nature of sports. You're working so hard, things don't go your way you let your guard down a little bit. And that's what I meant after the game by grit—we have to be able to play through and still maintain our intensity and our emotion and our confidence even when a team is making shots.”
Even if Stephen Curry returns on Saturday, the Warriors will miss Draymond Green
Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins are in the midst of widespread, career-worst struggles offensively. The dam finally broke from three for Chris Paul on Thursday, but he's still shooting only 26.1% on triples this season and has taken just two shots at the rim. Kevon Looney has seems less equipped to finish inside. Though Jonathan Kuminga looks more comfortable in the post than ever, his jumper and drive game are still major works in progress. Moses Moody has shown flashes offensively, but can't find sustained playing time. Brandin Podziemski and Dario Saric, good as they've been, aren't offensive panaceas.
The Warriors' offensive struggles without Stephen Curry are likely to continue, and won't entirely alleviate even once he soon returns to the floor a minor knee sprain. The same questions that dogged Golden State against Oklahoma City were the same ones that faced this team before Curry went down. Whereas his presence at least provided them easier looks and always-looming hope, though, the overmatched Dubs just haven't had either with him sitting.
The good news? Curry practiced on Friday and could play in the rematch versus the Thunder Saturday night. But Draymond Green is almost as indispensable to Golden State's defense as Curry is to its offense, especially against a five-out team like Oklahoma City that puts relentless pressure on defenses through attacking the rim, pushing the pace and running all types of different on-ball screening actions.
Looney discussed the impact of Green's absence defensively after the game.
“He helps us make adjustments a lot. When things aren’t going right, he’s one of the best basketball minds in the league,” Looney said, per Marcus Thompson of The Athletic. “So he’s seeing things and he’s able to adapt and tell coach, ‘We should do this instead’ and we adjust. He makes things happen like that. Or he can just do it all himself on the court where he sees things happen. He cleans up a lot of mistakes. I think we missed that a lot from him.”
Green will miss Saturday's game, plus three more after that. The Dubs will also be without Gary Payton II against the Thunder if not longer after he tweaked his left ankle during the first half of Thursday's game, robbing them of their best on-ball defender, a disruptive helper and driver of transition offense.
Don't be surprised if Golden State's losing streak reaches six games, even if Curry returns. Oklahoma City is a uniquely difficult matchup for the Warriors, with or without Green. But if Thompson and Wiggins, especially, finally start to break out of persistent offensive funks, rest assured the whole team will feed off that much-needed development defensively—just like the Dubs let Thursday's offensive slog influence their overall approach to the game.
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