Warriors’ NBA championship aspirations could be derailed by defensive failures

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Warriors’ title hopes could be derailed by defensive issues originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea

The offense, with a few momentary exceptions, has slowed to a drip.

The defense, tremendous most of the season, has gone softer than doctor’s cotton.

Though the Warriors, at 42-16, remain ahead of any reasonable preseason projection, they are wheezing toward the All-Star break as if they’ve suddenly tripled in age. Lethargy and neglect are fatal to any defense.

Coming off an encouraging weekend victory over the Lakers, the Warriors might have thought their worst was behind them. Considerable evidence to the contrary came Monday night, in the form of a 119-104 loss to the Clippers in Los Angeles.

The Warriors have lost three of four, and the culprit is visible. And it’s not fatigue, because all NBA teams have played similar number of games.

“Our defense has been bad,” coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s been bad for six, seven games now. It’s hard to win in this league when you’re looking like we are defensively, with so many holes in our game.

“Tonight, it was just on-ball defense. They just spent the entire game at the front of the rim. We couldn’t guard our man. Last game, it was box-outs, back cuts. Every game it’s been something a little different.”
There was a glimmer of hope early, with Stephen Curry scoring 16 points in the first quarter on 6-of-7 shooting, but Clippers coach Tyronn Lue quickly adjusted by sending a second defender at Curry and forcing other Warriors to counter adjust.

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They did not. Curry had a game-high 33 points, but his strongest support was from Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole, each with 13. Klay Thompson had seven points on 3-of-14 shooting.

Honestly, though, that was Golden State’s secondary problem – after a defense that for the most part was a brutal combination of indifference and thoughtlessness.

“They were getting to the rim too easy,” Wiggins said. “They were getting to their spots. We weren’t making it hard on them.”

The Clippers shot 56.5 percent from the field, reaching at least 50 percent in every quarter, with a high of 66.7 in the runaway third. Six players scored in double figures.

The Warriors were not able to shed some of their recent habits. The over-helping, often on a non-shooter. The flat-footed posture, resulting in poor switches and late closeouts. The failure to recognize and react based on the game plan. The kind of inattentiveness that can leave shooters open, particularly in the corners.

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This is not the defense that has brought such lavish praise to assistant coach Mike Brown.

It’s not one or two players, either. Nearly everybody has been guilty at one time or another, but some more than others. It always helps the opponent.

“It’s a combination of effort, focus and being connected, five guys on a string,” Kerr said. “That’s my job as a coach, to get them back to being a very good defensive team. I know we’re ‘the No. 1 defense in the league.’ But we’re not right now.”

Kerr emphasized his point by raising his hands to form an air quote around the phrase ‘No. 1 defense in the league’ because he knows it’s misleading.

“Those numbers are inflated by what we did early in the season,” he said. “Over the last seven, eight games, we’re probably bottom-five, if not dead last in the league in defensive rating. It’s up to us. We’re going to have to find the effort, the communication, the connection to get back to doing the things we were doing earlier in the season.”

Golden State is 22nd in defensive rating in seven February games, 18th over the last four. It’s not bottom-five it’s light years from championship level.

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In the four games since they won their ninth straight in Oklahoma City, the Warriors have been destroyed by the Jazz, been bested at home by the staggering Knicks, summoned a late comeback to edge the struggling Lakers and been blown out by a Clippers squad missing more All-Stars than any team in the league.

Four consecutive dreadful-to-mediocre games, with three losses, represent quite the unwelcome trend for a team with the second-best record in the NBA.

There is no question the defense misses Draymond Green, who has a way of erasing the errors of others. The same can be said, to some degree, of Andre Iguodala.

Shooting can come and go. The ball is fickle and can turn unfriendly on a whim.

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But defense is, first and foremost, a mentality.

It’s less about fate than details and determination, two things essential to the Warriors’ winning formula. Two things they’d like to have in the pre-break finale Wednesday and will need when they return next week.

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