The Warriors faded in and out of Sunday night’s game, ultimately relinquishing to a less talented Nets team.
They built a 12-point halftime lead on the back of hot shooting from deep. Then they weathered a third-quarter Brooklyn run, only to blow another 12-point lead in the fourth. They scored two points over a four-minute stretch when they could have put the Nets away.
Instead, the Warriors blew multiple double-digit leads against the Kevin Durant-less Brooklyn Nets. In the second half, Golden State (23-24) got outscored by 16. Since Durant’s knee injury, the Nets had lost four of five games before taking one from the Warriors in the Chase Center.
Royce O’Neale 3-pointer with 27.1 seconds left off a beautiful Kyrie Irving feed put Brooklyn on top for good in a 120-116 upset. Irving finished with a game-high 38 points and added nine assists despite stout on-ball defense from Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga.
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors’ disappointing loss.
Warriors stick with the small starters
For a second consecutive game with its full-strength roster, the Warriors went with Jordan Poole, not Kevon Looney, in the starting lineup. Head coach Steve Kerr reiterated pregame that the team will trial run the downsized lineup seriously.
For Poole, starting means more spacing to work with and less frequent matchups against opponents’ top defenders. The tradeoff Golden State is making, hypothetically, is a more potent offensive attack while being lighter on the boards and less scary defensively.
If the Poole-plus-starters lineup is going to work, the unit will have to commit to defending with energy and crashing the defensive glass to finish off possessions.
In the opening minutes, the Warriors didn’t do those things well enough. Nobody got back on defense after a made layup, resulting in a wide open Royce O’Neale dunk. Both Nic Claxton and Kyrie Irving corralled misses around the hoop on the same possession for second chance points. Poole brain-farted a five-second violation.
When Looney checked in at the 6:39 mark, the Warriors trailed by seven.
In the third quarter, the Warriors went back to the new lineup. They got too 3-happy and lost the opening minutes of the second half 12-3.
Poole, who got subbed offense-for-defense in crunch time, finished with a -13 plus-minus in the four-point loss.
The original starting five, with Looney, held the highest net rating among five-man lineups in the NBA. Breaking it up isn’t an easy decision.
Luckily for the Warriors, if the experiment fizzles, they can always revert back to the traditional two-big combination.
Put the Ben Simmons-Draymond Green comparisons to rest
When thinking about Ben Simmons’ career — and what he could or should do with his game — many try to compare him to Draymond Green. Without a reliable jumper, perhaps he should set screens and connect an offense with his vision, while anchoring the defense on the other end with his 6-foot-10 frame and athleticism. Play the Draymond role.
That’s all easier said than done. And when Green and Simmons match up against each other on the same court, it feels almost disrespectful to the former Defensive Player of the Year.
They both have the vision, but Green has the all-world I.Q.. They both have the defensive instincts, but Green can protect the rim like a 7-footer. They both struggle shooting from the perimeter, but Green can tune up the aggression while Simmons shies away from contact.
Simmons’ production in the half court is wanting. Green makes the Warriors’ free-flowing offense go. Green can play center in a small-ball unit, Simmons needs a big to help defend the paint with him.
In the first half, Simmons passed out of a layup attempt in favor of a kickout. Early in the third, he missed a point-blank layup because he rushed to avoid contact.
Simmons went 1-for-2 at the free throw line, actually improving his season percentage.
Early in the fourth, Green went at Simmons twice in transition, finishing for a bucket through contact in a role reversal.
Simmons getting back to this point, after the injuries and mental turmoil he dealt with, is impressive. But he’s his own player, and just one in a long list of players to be foolishly compared to Green.
Not all two point forwards are the same.
Much shorter bench
The Warriors deactivated Anthony Lamb pregame, as he’s already played 38 of the 50 games a two-way player can before requiring a fully guaranteed contract. JaMychal Green, a strong presence in Friday’s shocking win over Cleveland, didn’t see the court.
That meant Kerr limited his team to a nine-man rotation. Moses Moody was again on the outside looking in. Patrick Baldwin Jr. got a DNP.
Jonathan Kuminga (25 minutes), Donte DiVincenzo (27 minutes), Ty Jerome (8) and Looney (19) comprised the bench.
Kuminga provided a spark in the second half to counter Brooklyn’s surge. DiVincenzo hit his first four 3-pointers in an early barrage. Looney stabilized things on both ends and Jerome, despite foul trouble, made positive contributions.
All three of them finished with plus-minuses over 10.
The tighter rotation forced Stephen Curry to log a team-high 38 minutes. The Warriors could afford a bigger load, with their next game coming on Wednesday against Memphis in the Chase Center.