OAKLAND — The Warriors defense has not been very good through the first 10 games of 2016-17 season, but so far that hasn’t really mattered.
It was certainly the case in Golden State’s 133-120 victory over Phoenix on Sunday, when they allowed a far inferior Suns team to shoot 51 percent and score 56 points in the paint.
“Defensively we were all over the place, and not in a good way” Steve Kerr said after the victory. “We had multiple miscommunications, leaving shooters open, not rotating.”
“If you’re trying to win a championship, you don’t do that simply by outscoring people, you’ve got to make stops and you’ve got to play defense at a high level and we know that, our guys know that, so we’ve got to keep working, keep getting better.”
Against a team like the Suns, the Warriors can afford to play defense for five minute stretches in the third and fourth quarters and still win by double digits. Against tougher opponents, however, Kerr and his staff know this is not a recipe for success, especially on a night when the shots aren’t falling.
Though the offense will always grab the headlines, great defense has been a cornerstone of the Warriors identity since the Mark Jackson era. It was also a catalyst for the leap Golden State made when Kerr took over, finishing 4th in overall defensive efficiency in 2015-16, and 1st in 2014-15. Through nine games this season, the Warriors rank 16th.
The good news is it’s still early, and Golden State has already showed they are capable of defense excellence for stretches throughout the first 10 games. Ironically, it was a sequence that included two stellar blocks by Patrick McCaw and Kevin Durant that will go down as the most memorablse moment from Sunday’s win. The Warriors have the personnel to be a great defensive team, especially when they go small. The issue right now seems to be communication and focus, two correctable factors.
Multiple Warriors also pointed to the early 5 PM start time of Sunday’s game as something that threw them off on both ends.
“We have to kind of overcome that and there was a lot of frustration for why it wasn’t clicking and then effort, communication, and focus. We couldn’t put our finger on it,” Stephen Curry said after the game. “We showed we obviously have the right personnel and match ups to get stops but we didn’t start the game off that way. We talked about it at the beginning of the game too. It was a weird day I guess.”
A large part of the issue has to do with the Warriors still experimenting with rotations, and their lack of consistency at the center position. Right now, Golden State is best defensively when they don’t have a traditional center in the game, as none of their bigs have shown an ability to protect the rim. If that continues, playing Green at the five is the Warriors best option, allowing them to switch everything and strike quickly in transition.
Considering the Warriors are still going through their adjustment period, it’s far too early for any of this to be of major concern, and there is little doubt that Golden State will continue make steady improvements defensively as they work out the kinks in their rotation.
When the Warriors are clicking offensively, passible defense will be enough to edge their opponent on most night’s, especially when you consider that Golden State’s top ranked offense is far from reaching peak efficiency. On the night’s they’re not, however, the defensive effort they showed against Phoenix (and have showed in about half of their first 10 games this season) will not be enough to get the job done.