OAKLAND — Fourth quarter woes surfaced again for the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday. Three-point shots are not falling at the same rate they were last season.
“That’s the name of the game,” a visibly exhausted Steve Kerr said Wednesday after a 99-86 loss to the Boston Celtics.
The Warriors are not worriers. They didn’t panic when they trailed 3-1 to Oklahoma City in last year’s Western Conference Finals. They didn’t panic two years ago after going down 2-1 in their first championship run against Cleveland. They certainly are not going to panic about 18 regular seasons games in March and April.
But Kerr and the players are starting to grasp that the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference is on a treacherous path with one major obstacle in the way: The surging San Antonio Spurs are now just 1.5 games back. Gregg Popovich’s squad is 9-1 in their last 10 games. The Warriors are not playing their best basketball, and while they can likely flip a switch once the postseason commences, there is some pressure to find themselves as the season winds down.
Just like Kevin Durant’s injury, losing the top overall seed in the playoffs would be more disheartening than devastating, but it’s now a reality. The Warriors are capable of winning a Game 7 on the road in San Antonio, but by slumping down the stretch of the regular season, the team is putting themselves in a position to flirt with disaster in late May (securing the No. 2 seed will mean a second round matchup against the incredibly-improved Houston Rockets).
Oh by the way — how much does this team miss Durant? He makes up for so many mistakes on the floor, adjusting to life without him has been more difficult than expected. A month ago, it felt like the Warriors could hit the cruise control button in the month of April. But the remaining schedule will be a flat out dogfight.
“We talk about (the No. 1 seed), but we need to focus on us,” Steph Curry said after scoring 23 points in the loss to Boston.
Part of this slump — which for Warriors standards is a 2-3 record in their last five games — is totally out of Kerr’s control. Golden State’s current stretch of games is so condensed, so packed with air miles, Kerr hasn’t made his team hit the practice court yet in the month of March. The head coach assured reporters Wednesday that these types of snags are normal in an NBA season. The Bay Area has been so spoiled since Kerr’s arrival, it’s forgotten what a traditional regular season looks like.
Rotations seemed to be a bit out of sync on Wednesday, though. For a major stretch of the fourth quarter, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green were left on the bench while Curry and the bench players repeatedly turned the basketball over. Kerr doubled-down in the interview room, saying he’s never going to lose trust in his bench. As flawless as the head coach has been in his first three seasons, it seems as if this season in particular may be wearing on him, too.
“I’m not going to run guys ragged to get it,” Kerr said about the No. 1 seed. “Obviously we want it. It would be nice to get. But you have to get through the season in one piece. You have to pace yourselves a little bit. Obviously with KD’s injury there’s a domino effect there, minutes-wise, rotation-wise. So we’ve got to manage this stretch right here and get through this week and come back next week back home and be home all week. Guys will be in their own beds. So that’ll be a good thing and we’ll get recharged. But we’ve got to get back out on the road tomorrow. Seems kind of crazy, but here we go.”
Back to the three-pointer issue, which circumvented a win vs. Boston. The Warriors are shooting significantly worse behind the arc (38.0 percent as a team) than they were last year (41.6). Against the Celtics, it was a 6-for-30 clip that sapped the entire game. That’s not the case often, but clunkers from downtown have been happening more often in 2016-17 than they did the last two seasons combined. Although he’s adjusted well to the arrival of Durant, Curry is still shooting his worst three-point percentage of his career. The Warriors have come up with other avenues to score and we could see them rely on different strategies in the postseason — especially when 3’s aren’t falling in a Game 7. But this team is not going to change their identity.
Late game issues are falling in Curry’s lap, more than any other player. He’s still playing at unbelievably high level for a point guard, but you have to wonder if he’s providing the same fear factor for defenders he did a year ago.
Big difference from last season is that Steph was a crunch time killer. His 4th quarters this season vs. last pic.twitter.com/i9JcJ75Spi
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) March 9, 2017
“For whatever reason, we’re in a little bit of a funk from three right now,” Kerr said. “The travel, the last trip, all the miles in the air probably doesn’t help — let’s be honest. I’m not worried about that. We’ve got good shooters. You get through the schedule, there’s going to be some tough spots. But you get through, recharge and those shots start going in.”
“Our goal is not to look too far ahead,” Klay Thompson said. “One day at a time.”