The Golden State Warriors woke up from a dream win against the Houston Rockets on Christmas night and rose to a 30-point defeat against a James Harden-led team. Head coach Steve Kerr had an edict in mind for his team for the remaining 27 games of the season: limit the turnovers and stop fouling.
“I want to see an awareness of the mistakes that we're making and the wherewithal to correct them,” Kerr said before the break, according to Logan Murdock of NBC Sports Bay Area. “We've got to stop fouling jump shooters, we've got to stop turning the ball over.”
Both of those focus points fell on deaf ears, as the Warriors committed 21 turnovers and repeatedly fouled Harden when rising up behind the line.
The Warriors were praised during the holiday season, as they limited Harden to one free throw, his lowest output of the season, which he missed off the back of the rim. Golden State played him tight, then loosened the string when he tried to draw contact, resulting in many misses and no calls for The Beard.
As Kerr sees it, that was a picture-perfect plan, but one the Warriors can't expect to execute every time.
“The other game was more of an exception,” Kerr said. “This was more of the rule. He's usually going to get to the line. You try to keep him under double figures and I think we fouled him three three-point shots. That's nine free throws right there. We were undisciplined.”
“I thought we looked young tonight. We looked inexperienced and made a lot of mistakes at both ends, but I thought Houston had a lot to do with that. They were terrific.”
The Warriors were ultimately run out of their own building in a 135-105 scorcher but took some lessons home after not heeding Kerr's mandate.
Golden State might not be playing for much this season, but they must tune up their system before Stephen Curry's impending return, which will demand better execution at both ends of the floor.
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