The Golden State Warriors have received a blow to the mouth after winning a season-high four straight games at the tail end of December, now sporting a nine-game losing skid after a blowout loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night.
Head coach Steve Kerr has seen his team go from encouraged to hopeless, losing the last two games by 20 or more points, an attitude he badly wants to change:
“The losing part is the hardest part,” said Kerr, according to ESPN's Nick Friedell. “You can pick apart the details. The defense tonight, we struggled to get stops, but we're also playing the No. 1 offense in the league and they've been a tough matchup for us this year. I think what I don't like is the feeling of things snowballing on us.
“We've been competitive for the most part this year and I think right now we're in a tailspin and we've got to stop that. And the way to stop it is to really fight defensively and play with a sense of desperation, and we've got to get to that. That's the only way we're going to get out of it. Last couple games, I haven't felt like we were very competitive, and that's what we have to get to.”
The Warriors managed to keep it close for the first half in both games before letting go of the rope in the third quarter, allowing first the Memphis Grizzlies and then the Mavs to carve out even bigger leads to put the game away.
Golden State is now the worst team in the league with a 9-33 mark, but these are habits that must change if this core of players is to have a chance to play next to high-caliber talents like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson — two perennial winners who won't tolerate low effort.
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