ABOVE: Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr says the team’s physical conditioning is getting there but its mental conditioning is a work in progress with several mistakes in the win against the Toronto Raptors.
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OAKLAND — The thoroughly dominant Warriors of last season clearly have yet to show up for the 2017-18 campaign, and a near meltdown at Oracle Arena Wednesday night provided the most damning evidence yet.
The Warriors built a 14-point third quarter advantage against Toronto and blew it. They took an 11-point early in the fourth quarter and blew that so badly, the Raptors surged ahead by five points heading into the final two minutes. It looked like a night of total disaster.
But these are the Warriors, of course, and what was looking like one of the worst-ever home defeats under coach Steve Kerr suddenly turned into one of the most thrilling finishes. Huge 3-pointers by Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry in the final 1:02 and a pivotal block by Klay Thompson allowed Golden State to pull out a miraculous 117-112 victory. But more than a few people may have come away with butt blisters from squirming uncomfortably.
For the record, these were the key particulars of the victory: Durant, who scored 29 points, hit a 3-pointer that tied things at 112-all with 1:02 left, and after Toronto’s DeMar DeRozan missed a pull-up jumper, Curry hit a step-back, top-of-the-key 3 with 32.1 seconds to go. Thompson then blocked Kyle Lowry’s layup attempt with 16.1 seconds on the clock, and the Warriors then sealed their third win against two losses with a pair of Curry free throws with 5.1 seconds remaining, his game-high 29th and 30th points.
But the final 1 1/2 minutes might have been the only time the Warriors really looked anything remotely like the NBA champion Warriors. For most of the rest of the game, they played disturbing, dentist-chair basketball. They’re still giving up too many points because of defensive breakdowns and lack of communication. They’re committing too many turnovers and fouls, and on this mostly ghastly night, they got pummeled on the offensive boards by somebody named Jakob Poeltl (14 rebounds, 11 on the offensive end).
Bad and as out of sync as things look, though, should anyone be that worried? Or should the Warriors and their fans happily accept this root-canal victory and write this off as NBA October coupled with post-China, post-championship malaise?
One thing is certain, the Warriors weren’t writing it off afterward. One by one, led by Kerr, they came into the interview room and verbally spanked themselves.
“I think our legs are fine now,” said Kerr. “But our conditioning is both mental and physical and I think our mental conditioning is not there. It just shows in a lot of different ways. Our execution just isn’t quite sharp enough.”
“We’ve just got to put a full game together,” said Durant. “We’re shooting the ball well, we’re moving it well, and teams are making some tough shots over us. We have to keep our heads up, just keep pushing and getting better. We don’t want to build bad habits and I think coach is doing a good job of correcting us when we make mistakes.”
Durant did muse that a 4-year-old sitting in the stands would have observed that the Warriors were pretty brutal boxing out on the glass, particularly against Poeltl in the second half.
Draymond Green said much of it was a simple case of poor focus. As for the level of defense, he was more direct, calling it “horrible. Nobody’s communicating, which is the main problem. The first four games, we were fouling a lot, and then tonight, we fouled early and then we cut back on that and turned the ball over. It’s hard to defend that. You cut our 17 turnovers down to 12, you probably take away nine of their points and it’s a completely different defense. We just have to put everything together, a full game for 48 minutes.”
And why hasn’t that happened?
“Sometimes you get a little too comfortable and it’s like, we’ve done this before and it’s just going to happen,” Green said. “Game 40, a switch may be seamless, but Game 5, you need to communicate a little more. So we just have to build the right habits, get back to understanding the problem and know how to correct it.”
The Raptors, who were led by DeRozan’s 24 points, just looked quicker to the ball most of the night. They are a good, quick, slashing team, but the Warriors weren’t copping out to Toronto’s terrific effort.
“We just need to have better focus,” said Thompson, who generated $22,000 on the first night of his Sonoma/Napa counties fire relief campaign in which he is pledging $1,000 for every point scored during this three-game homestand. “We can get there and we will get there. It’s late October, so we’re not going to panic. We’re going to get there, I promise you.”
Thompson might have had the best all-around game for Golden State: eight rebounds, five assists and that key block late to go with his 22 points, and he made 4 of 6 attempts from 3-point range. That’s one thing the Warriors did do well, making 12 of 26 shots from long distance.
The Warriors struggled to catch a groove in the first half as Kerr tinkered with various lineups to try and find some effective new combinations. With Toronto missing its top two centers, Jonas Valanciunas and Lucas Nogueira, with ankle sprains, Golden State declared one of its own backup centers, JaVale McGee, a rare inactive. Nick Young, who got considerable time in the first four games, never got off the bench in this one.
Instead, the Warriors went mostly small and defensive against Toronto’s talented backcourt of DeRozan and Lowry. At one point to finish the first quarter, they had a front line of Green, Andre Iguodala and rookie Jordan Bell on the floor with guards Patrick McCaw and Curry. Early in the second quarter, it was almost a completely different look with Iguodala, Durant, Shaun Livingston, David West and Thompson.
But none of the groupings Kerr attempted worked for very long.
“We didn’t really find a unit tonight that kind of created some traction for us where we could really make a push,” he said. “We’re trying different lineups, we’re trying different things, trying to keep a lot of different people engaged and involved, but we’re not ready yet to find rotations and lineups that will give us a surge because we’re just not doing the basic, fundamental stuff.
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Second-year center Damian Jones, who didn’t play at all in the first four games of the season, has been assigned to the Warriors’ developmental G League team in Santa Cruz.
“He needs to play,” said Kerr. “I talked to him the other day on the road. This is probably an unfair metaphor, but I reminded him that Aaron Rodgers didn’t play for like three years.
“Go ahead with your `I just compared D.J. to Aaron Rodgers jokes,’ but more than anything, it was just a reminder that especially for a young guy like that who should be a senior in college, he’s just a kid, filled with potential, but he needs to play. He’s playing on the best team in the league, the world champs, and he’s playing behind 3-4 veteran centers who’ve been doing this for a long time. There’s just no minutes for him.”
“You just keep pounding away if you’re a guy like that,” Kerr said. “You work, you work, you work and eventually your time comes.”
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The Warriors entered Wednesday’s game having committed the sixth-most fouls in the league, and are averaging 24.8 fouls a game. Hence, Kerr said the team’s entire film session was on fouling.
“We have a number of issues we’re concerned about, but that’s No. 1 by far at the top of the list because of the domino effect from fouling is dramatic,” the coach said. “You’re giving up free points, the game is stopping, you’re getting into foul trouble, you’re getting into the bonus earlier, so when you do have to commit a foul to stop a fast break, it’s two free throws. The pace of the game changes, and more than anything, it’s a sign of discipline. You keep reaching and reaching mindlessly, you’re obviously not going to execute very well at the other end because your head’s not in it.
“So that’s our focus right now and we think if we can take care of that, it’ll solve a lot of our problems and allow us to continue to grow.”
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Curry entered the game having made his first 39 free throws of the season and 41 straight dating back to last regular season. He went 8 for 8 to up his totals to 47 and 49, respectively, and he is drawing closer to his personal NBA mark of 52 consecutive free throws, as well as the franchise mark of 60 straight held by Rick Barry.
Curry has a ways to go to challenge the NBA mark for consecutive free throws. Former Minnesota guard Michael Williams made 97 in a row during the 1993 season.
