The Golden State Warriors haven’t been playing their best basketball since the All-Star break. The team is a mere 3-4 since the break and have lost control of the top seed in the Western Conference.
While the team hasn’t been its absolute best offensively, they’re still averaging 113 points per game since the All-Star break. The problem has been the team’s inability to get stops on the other end of the floor.
In the seven games since coming back, the Warriors have a 114.3 defensive rating, which would be 29th in the NBA if that were their rating for the season. No matter how good a team is offensively, it’s hard to overcome giving up 117 points every night, and Draymond Green feels that everyone on the team is responsible.
There has been a lot of talk about the Warriors struggling to defend P&R sets with DeMarcus Cousins on the floor, but Green is absolutely right about everyone struggling to maintain their assignments.
They’ve been a middle of the pack defense for the entirety of the season, so a lot of their issues on that end of the floor existed before Cousins joined the team in late January — they’ve just been exasperated since he’s been on the floor.
If the Warriors are going to win their third consecutive title, they’re going to have to pick things up on the defensive end of the floor. They have the best offense in the NBA, so they’re going to be able to score without problems against anyone over a seven game series, but without the ability to get stops, they’ll be their most vulnerable in the postseason in five years.
