After Jimmy Butler III joined the Warriors, the team gained enough confidence to believe in Draymond Green’s bold claim during the NBA All-Star break that a championship was only three months away.
However, after a week of average performances, the Warriors are now struggling to hold onto sixth place in the Western Conference. They no longer look like a team that could go deep in the playoffs, let alone win the NBA Finals.
Much of the progress they made with Butler’s addition fell apart this week, with the turning point being Saturday night in Atlanta. The Warriors were outplayed from the start and lost 124-115 to a Hawks team that was missing two starters.
Coach Steve Kerr explained the loss by saying, “Yeah, 40 points in the first quarter. We were swimming upstream the rest of the way. I love the way the guys fought after that, but it was a layup line in the first quarter.
Transition defense was awful. Give them credit. They were ready. They came out smoking hot, but at halftime, they had 23 assists or three turnovers. We didn’t impact the game defensively until it was far too late.”
The Warriors (41-30) played without Stephen Curry, but that doesn’t excuse their slow start or poor defense.
Green was disappointed, stating, “It’s a bad loss. It’s a terrible loss. When you’re in the position we’re in, we’ve got a chance to compete for something. Eleven games left, with everything to play for, you shouldn’t have a loss like this. There’s too much on the line.
You’ve got to win the games you’re supposed to win. Steph is out. It’s still a game we should win. Terrible loss.”
In recent weeks, the Warriors had won several games that they admit they would have lost earlier in the season, before Butler’s arrival. But this week, they lost two of those games and nearly lost a third.
The Warriors’ loss to the Denver Nuggets, who were missing Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray, on Monday at Chase Center raised concerns
Needing all 48 minutes to defeat the Toronto Raptors, who are near the bottom of the standings, on Thursday at Chase was a wake-up call.
The loss to the Hawks (34-36), who were missing two starters, raised alarms about the Warriors’ momentum since Butler’s arrival.
Green said, “We didn’t come out ready to play. We came out like we were just going to win the game, and we got diced up defensively in the first quarter. From that point on, you’re fighting an uphill battle.
Jamal Murray (NBA)Everybody’s comfortable, and they took it to us. We’ve got to be better, and that starts with me. We were terrible defensively. This is the NBA. Once guys get into a rhythm, it’s hard. They got into a rhythm, and had it rolling. It’s tough to stop that so we’ve got to come out ready to play.”
Green had a rough performance, especially since he is as important to Golden State’s defense as Curry is to its offense. Atlanta shot 65.4 percent in the first quarter, 60 percent in the first half, and outscored the Warriors 60-44 in the paint.
But Butler’s performance shouldn’t be blamed. He scored a team-high 25 points, recorded a team-high eight assists, and finished with a plus-11 rating (the best on the team) in 38 minutes. The only other Warriors with a positive plus/minus were Gary Payton II, who was plus-6 with 11 points in 17 minutes.
15 points outscored the Warriors’ bench, were outshot (57 percent to 46.4 percent) for the second straight game, outrebounded (46-38) for the third time in four games, and out-assisted (37-28) for the third time in four games.
To recover, the Warriors need to focus on their defense.
Kerr said, “I didn’t feel good about it tonight. But we were the second-ranked defense in the league since we traded for Jimmy. So the defense has been really good. We’re right at the top of the league in deflections for turnovers. But didn’t happen tonight. So, the biggest thing is, we’ve got to respond, bounce back.”
This loss sets the Warriors back, at least for now. The first step to getting back on track, with or without Curry, comes Tuesday in Miami. If the first quarter looks like it did on Saturday, they could find themselves in the Play-In Tournament.
