The Warriors had a big stretch of games start on Sunday against the Spurs, playing their first game without the injured Stephen Curry as they battle for playoff position late in the season.
They lost that game and on Tuesday, matters got even worse. Golden State lost to the cellar-dwelling Magic in Orlando, blowing a nine-point fourth-quarter lead. The Warriors scored just 16 points in the period. The club is now just 6-12 in its last 18 games after the 94-90 defeat.
After the game, coach Steve Kerr and forward Draymond Green had some revealing comments about Golden State’s recent slide. Kerr said the team doesn’t know how to win, and then Green came out of the locker room and made that comment seem tame by comparison.
Soft, stupid, and getting punked. Okay, Draymond. Tell us how you really feel.
Here’s footage of Green when he made the comment just for the full flavor of the scorching critique. Plus, Green through some positivity and optimism in there, too.
Okay so full disclosure, I did not watch this game. It’s the first game I’ve missed all season. But I’ve gotta say something about Green. He himself plays soft, kinda stupid, and also a little bit scared when he has a wide open look at the hoop from inside the paint.
Mostly soft and scared. I’ve written about this before, but he is incredibly hesitant to shoot easy layups. Often, when he does, he puts up crazy bricks and complains about not getting fouled. It hurts the offense in a major way, in my opinion.
And I had to bring this up because what do you know, the same thing happened at least one time in this demoralizing loss.
It’s a team game, however, and the Warriors have won championships with Green playing that way. But the roster was obviously much more cohesive at that time. And Green’s fire on defense obviously makes up for his shortcomings.
Guard Jordan Poole, who I had pinned my hopes on without Curry down the stretch, had a poor shooting night (9-23) as well, though he led the team in scoring. Wings Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins struggled mightily and shot a combined 11-34 from the field.
Poole said that Kerr and Green had the same message for the team in the locker room, so we’ll see if the tough love works, starting Wednesday night in Miami against the Heat.
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