© Kyle Terada | 2021 Mar 15
The Warriors season has been an up-and-down affair, and that continued on Monday night. Golden State was blown out by the Los Angeles Lakers for the second and final time this season at Chase Center, 128-97, one night after their most impressive win of the season over the Utah Jazz. LeBron James had an easy triple-double (22 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists) and the game was barely competitive after a rough second quarter in which the Warriors were outscored 36-24.
The Warriors brutal six game stretch — Lakers, Blazers, Suns, Clippers, Jazz, Lakers — is now over, and the Warriors went 1-5, four of which were blowouts. It’s clear they are a step below the league’s elite. Here are some takeaways.
Back-to-back affects everything, especially defense
The Warriors looked like a team on the backend of a back-to-back. This was most reflected in their porous defense, the biggest strength of the team this season. The Lakers are not a great offensive team (17th in efficiency) and even worse without Anthony Davis, Marc Gasol and Alex Caruso. But Los Angeles looked like one of the best offensive teams in the league without those players on Monday, shooting 62.8 percent from the field and 40.7 percent from three.
Much of the high percentage can be traced to a number of easy looks at the basket. The most extreme example of this came via Montrezl Harrell, who tortured James Wiseman all night. Harrell finished with a game-high 27 points on 11-of-14 shooting, most of which came via dunk or layups as Wiseman struggled to protect the paint while guarding the pick-and-roll. It was hardly all his fault, too many times Wiseman had to step up and guard the ball hander coming downhill, and was too committed to defend Harrell once a quick pass was made.
It’s not like it was much better when Kevon Looney was guarding him either. The two combined for 10 fouls, and just 7 points.
Second unit falls back to Earth
While the Harrell-Wiseman matchup was a specific problem, it was a microcosm of a larger issue that continues to plague the Warriors. The second-unit is an admitted work in progress, with three players 21 or younger — Wiseman, Jordan Poole, Nico Mannion — all featuring in that group. After looking decent against the Jazz, they were dominated once again.
Like they did in their debut vs. the Clippers, the new look second-unit basically knocked the Warriors out of the game, falling into a 19-11 hole early. Also like they did vs. the Clippers, the starters couldn’t stop the bleeding, entering halftime trailing, 65-50, a deficit they were never really able to chip into.
Right now, the volatility is so extreme with this group, playing them runs the risk of making the Warriors uncompetitive against good teams. While it’s far too early to cut bait — Steve Kerr is playing the long game here after all — Monday was informative that some tweaks need to be made. Most notably, the Warriors need to figure out a way for the group to improve defensively, with the undersized Mannion and Poole too easy to get past, and the inexperienced Wiseman and Eric Paschall too often put in tough positions trying to protect the basket against charging ball handlers.
Paschall is an intriguing option with the group because of his scoring potential and ability to create his own shot, but Juan Toscano-Anderson may be a better fit with the group considering his defensive versatility. The same could be said regarding a swap of Mannion and somebody like Damion Lee, assuming Kerr would be okay with Poole running the show.
The Warriors will have to sacrifice something with that group. As of now, it looks like the defensive floor is just too low to stand pat.
It’s Andrew Wiggins, what do you expect?
At this point in his career, it would be silly to act like Andrew Wiggins’ complete no-show on Monday was a surprise. This is who he is, and this is why he’s on the Warriors and not the Timberwolves. Wiggins was excellent vs. Utah, dropping 28 points on 12-of-16 shooting, while also adding three steals. He was the opposite of whatever that was on Monday. Wiggins had just one made field goal at halftime on 1-of-4 shooting. By the time the game was over, he’d attempted just nine shots.
That’s not going to cut it on a team that is desperate for any scoring help beyond Stephen Curry (9-of-17, 27 points) but that is going to have to cut it until the Warriors can find consistent scoring from somewhere else. Throughout Wiggins’ career, he’s been an up-and-down player. Some nights he has it, some he doesn’t. When he doesn’t, there’s no point in trying to force it, that just makes it worse.
For every Jazz game, he has a Lakers game. Wiggins has been a plus overall this season, mainly because of his defensive intensity every night, and because of that scoring upside that has been slightly more consistent than his time in Minnesota. But if you’re looking for the primary reason that there is a ceiling on this team, it’s the fact that he’s their second offensive option. For the time being, that’s not a solvable issue.