OKLAHOMA CITY — Late Tuesday night, Steve Kerr shuffled into a makeshift press room inside Paycom Center and acknowledged the obvious: Right now, Golden State isn’t very good. The Warriors had just absorbed a 24-point loss to Oklahoma City, a loss that could have been a lot worse had both teams not pulled their starters with the Thunder up by 30 in the third quarter.
“We’re not playing well,” Kerr said. “And we haven’t been playing well since the second week of the season. So it doesn’t feel right.”
There’s no shame in losing to Oklahoma City. The Thunder, even without Jalen Williams, have picked up where they left off last season, backed by a defensive rating more than four points better than any competitor. But it’s how the Warriors are losing, Kerr said. Golden State committed 20 turnovers Tuesday, many unforced. The Warriors were crushed on the glass (40–29) and allowed Oklahoma City to shoot 52.4% in the first half, when the game was still in reach.
“Guys are, they’re trying,” Kerr said. “I mean it’s not like it’s a lack of effort, but we’re not crashing. The old things we did at the end of last year when we got good—take care of the ball crash, create good shots for each other, win the possession battle—we’re not doing any of those things right now.”
Inside the Warriors’ locker room, the frustration was palpable. Expectations were high coming into the season. Golden State was 23–8 after acquiring Jimmy Butler from the Heat last season. The Warriors knocked off the Rockets in the first round and likely would have advanced further had Stephen Curry not been injured early in the second round series against the Timberwolves. That team played with offensive discipline and defensive edge. This team is playing with neither.
“I think [last season] everybody was committed to winning and doing that any way possible,” Draymond Green said. “And right now, it doesn’t feel that way.”
Addressing reporters, Kerr reiterated his concerns with the effort on the offensive glass. Golden State was aggressive on the offensive boards last season, finishing in the top 10 after the All-Star break with 12.1 rebounds per game. This season the Warriors rank in the bottom five. On Tuesday, they pulled down six offensive rebounds. Butler was the only member of the starting lineup to have one.
“When we got Jimmy last year, our defense skyrocketed,” said Kerr. “And it wasn’t because we changed schemes and it wasn’t because Jimmy was like Dikembe Mutombo out there. We just took care of the ball and the game connected. The game made sense. The crashing, getting offensive rebounds, it dramatically helps your defense. You gain extra possessions, you jam transition. I’ve got to do a better job. I’ve got to find the keys that can get us to getting some confidence and some rhythm back.”
The defensive lapses have been frustrating. Statistically, the Warriors’ defense hasn’t been awful. During this recent seven-game funk, Golden State is 11th in defensive rating (112.7), 12th in opponent field goal percentage (46.4%) and 14th in points allowed (114.3). But the Warriors have also lost to the Kings, the Giannis Antetokounmpo–less Bucks and the Pacers. Kerr has criticized the team’s lack of purpose and energy. Butler took it a step further.
“I think that the fight’s not always there,” said Butler. “We got to fight, no matter what. Most of that fighting I’m talking about is on the defensive end. Not getting stops means you’re just not playing hard, you’re just not doing whatever it takes to win.”
Added Green, “I think everyone has a personal agenda in this league. But you have to make those personal agendas work in the team confines. And if it doesn’t work, then you kind of got to get rid of your agenda, or eventually the agenda is the cause of someone getting rid of you. And so I think you don’t want a team with no personal agendas because a goal is an agenda. And so you got to have some type of personal agenda, but your personal agenda must fit into the confines of the team.”
Effort aside, it’s clear Golden State has a personnel issue. Size is a problem. The Warriors were manhandled by Oklahoma City’s front line of Isaiah Hartenstein and Chet Holmgren. Quinten Post and Trayce Jackson-Davis’s output has ticked down and the 35-year-old Green is limited by how many minutes he can play in the middle. Al Horford didn’t play Tuesday as the Warriors try to manage his workload, but Horford, 39, can’t be counted on to carry a frontcourt, either.
Jonathan Kuminga has been uneven. Maximizing Kuminga has been among the Warriors’ greatest challenges in recent years. The two-way talent is there, but it has been an awkward fit in Golden State’s system. And Kuminga has chafed at a reduced role. Butler has taken it on himself to work with Kuminga—he had Kuminga over to his house for dinner after a win against Indiana last weekend—emphasizing the need for consistency in all areas. While Kuminga shot it well Tuesday (6 for 9), he committed five turnovers in the loss.
“We just got to get back to doing whatever it takes to win,” Butler said. “Everybody’s going to have to sacrifice something. I can’t tell you what that sacrifice might be for every individual. It may be different for every individual every single night. But it’s got to get back to winning is the main thing and the only thing.”
Said Curry, “Commitment to winning is just running the floor, rebounding, taking care of the basketball. It’s not really about shots going in and out, and we haven’t done that consistently enough, and our record shows that. The good news is we can turn it around.”
Indeed, it is early. But the Warriors can’t manufacture another big man and the Western Conference isn’t getting any smaller. The Butler trade reinvigorated Golden State last season but the front office has no more cards to play. Inside the Warriors’ locker room, players urged the team to look internally. Which may be the only place to look.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as What’s Behind the Warriors’ Slide? Inside Steve Kerr’s Candid Assessment.
