The Warriors get embarrassed for the second night in a row in New York City and lose 113-143 to the Nets.
The Nets blow the Warriors off of the court in the first quarter, James Wiseman gets extended minutes and a new career-high, Patrick Baldwin Jr. shines, and not many other happy things occur
On February 5th, 2020, D’Angelo Russell played his final game as a Golden State Warrior at the Barclays Center in a 41-point loss. The Warriors trailed by as many as 44 points in that game and vibes were terminally bad by that point in the season, but believe it or not, that god-awful Warriors’ team actually won its previous game against the Washington Wizards. This Warriors’ team lost its previous game the night before and it was nearly just as embarrassing. Context matters here — that 2019-2020 roster was tanky as can be whereas this Warriors’ team was missing four of their key rotation players — and this was a pretty predictable loss, considering the Warriors’ road woes. But unfortunately, I don’t think tonight’s loss is the immediate precursor to a roster shakeup, even though the Warriors obviously need one.
Tonight’s loss pushes the Warriors’ record to 15-18. Their next game comes on Christmas — at home, mercifully — against a Memphis Grizzlies team with a 19-11 record, a chip on their shoulder, and a sense of the moment. Andrew Wiggins will hopefully be back for that game, but I’d expect a loss in that game and think there’s a good chance the Warriors go 4-4 at best in their upcoming homestand. That would put the Warriors at 19-22 on January 13, the next time the Warriors go on the road, a little less than a month before the trade deadline.
Will Steph Curry be back on the court by January 13? God, I hope so. The Warriors absolutely need Steph Curry to be a championship contender, but realistically, the Warriors need upgrades on the back end of the roster to put together a stretch of games that vault them into a decent playoff seed. Right now, the Warriors are in the 11th seed and are only half a game up on the Lakers and just one game up on the Thunder. The comforts of home and the looming returns of Andrew Wiggins, Donte DiVincenzo, and Klay Thompson should help right the ship some. But if the Warriors don’t get it together soon, they run the risk of locking themselves into this roster, or in the worst-case scenario, spurring a sell-off of the Warriors’ veterans.
If the Warriors’ players want veteran reinforcements, they’re going to have to fight like hell on the court to convince the Warriors’ front office — and more important, Warriors’ owner, Joe Lacob — to give up some of their Second Timeline players for said veteran reinforcement. If there was a bright spot in tonight’s game, it was that three of the Warriors’ young players — James Wiseman, Moses Moody, and Patrick Baldwin Jr. — looked confident. Will that translate into improved on-court production or perhaps into increased trade value? Only time will tell.
Oh, did I mention that tonight’s game and the one before both occurred on national TV? Tonight’s game was effectively over by the end of the first quarter and TNT’s announcers said confidently that the Nets appeared to be on their way to winning their 7th game in a row. Joy. It’s bad enough for NBA’s defending champions to lose consecutive games in humiliating fashion but to do it in front of a national TV audience two nights in a row? Ugh.
Oh, and did I mention that the Nets scored more points off of threes — 21 — in the first quarter than the Warriors did in the entire period? Tight, tight.
Thoughts and observations:
James Wiseman was the Warriors’ leading scorer tonight and finished the game with a career-high 30 points in 27 minutes just hours after I did a long Twitter video thread on him that I’ve linked to here. Wiseman checked into the game with the Warriors down 21 points in the first quarter and the low-pressure environment of an almost-certain blowout suited him. Wiseman looked way more relaxed tonight than he did in yesterday’s close-ish game against the New York Knicks and with the Warriors trailing by huge margins for all of his minutes, he was willing to take risks and live with the results. I’ll have more words and videos on his performance in the “James Wiseman watch” segment later in this piece.
Draymond Green and Jordan Poole, the Warriors’ last two adults standing, were both terrible tonight. Green threw two costly turnovers in the first quarter that spurred the Nets’ first-quarter domination whereas Poole was just 2/7 in that period. Poole finished the game with 7 turnovers and pretty much every single one of them was lazy, inexplicable, clumsy, or some unholy combination of all three of those adjectives. Poole finished the game with 13 points on 17 shots, 11 of which came from deep. Poole made just one of his 11 shots from deep and the Warriors’ fourth-quarter garbage-time offense looked significantly smoother than it did when Poole ran the show early in the game.
Speaking of turnovers — Jonathan Kuminga committed three of them in the first quarter and finished the game with 4 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers on 1/9 shooting from the field. Kuminga didn’t make his first field goal until the third quarter despite several physical drives to the hoop, but he simply could not finish tonight and he lost or nearly lost the ball a few times trying to dribble his way into the paint. Anthony Lamb, one of the only other Warriors’ rotation players who were active tonight, had a rough game too and put up a nearly identical stat line to Kuminga with 6 points, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 4 turnovers.
Ty Jerome, the Warriors’ other two-way player, scored 14 points, dished out 7 assists, and committed just one turnover. He’s still not a super instinctual pick-and-roll player, but he’s the least of the Warriors’ big-picture concerns. As far as Steve Kerr’s third-string point guards go, he’s actually one of the better ones. Jerome doesn’t really turn the ball over, he’s willing to shoot off of the dribble, and he’s got a surprisingly good touch on floaters.
Moses Moody and Patrick Baldwin Jr. each scored 17 points and were the only Warrior players who hit more than one three tonight. Moody looked more at ease as the game went on and demonstrated good confidence attacking off of the dribble, and shot 4/6 on two-point field goals. Baldwin Jr., on the other hand, only took two shots from inside the arc, but he made his first five threes of the night and spurred an early fourth-quarter run that hinted at the remote possibility of the Comeback of the Century. Baldwin Jr. also got some much-needed reps defending the perimeter. As you’d expect of a rookie who has physical limitations, those defensive possessions weren’t always great, but he looked hideable on defense, which might be something you can work if he’s sharing the court with veterans.
Ryan Rollins, the Warriors’ other rookie, didn’t play until the 5:59 mark of the fourth quarter. Make of that what you will, but uh... to not be able to get on the court at any point prior when 30+ minutes of tonight’s game were a 30-point blowout? Not great.
Rotation watch:
1st Q:
12:00 — Poole/Moody/Kuminga/D. Green/Looney: 0-0, tie game.
7:01 — Poole/Moody/Lamb/Kuminga/D. Green: 10-23, Nets lead.
6:22 — Poole/Jerome/Lamb/Kuminga/D. Green: 10-25, Nets lead.
3:44 — Jerome/Moody/Lamb/Kuminga/Wiseman: 12-33, Nets lead.
0:46 — Poole/Jerome/Lamb/Kuminga/Wiseman: 17-45, Nets lead.
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